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THE  THEORY  OF 


THE  LEISURE  CLASS 


AN  ECONOMIC  STUDY  IN  THE  EVOLUTION 
OE  INSTITUTIONS 


THORSTEIN  VEBLEN 


Nefo  gorfc 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Ltd. 
1899 


All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1899, 

By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Nortoooli  !y)rcgs 

J.  S.  Cushing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith 
Norwood  Mass.  TJ.S.A. 


330.  \ 
V  H  *- 
\  8  ^  ^ 


PREFACE 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  inquiry  to  discuss  the  place 
and  value  of  the  leisure  class  as  an  economic  factor 
in  modern  life,  but  it  has  been  found  impracticable 
to  confine  the  discussion  strictly  within  the  limits  so 
marked  out.  Some  attention  is  perforce  given  to  the 

, 

origin  and  the  line  of  derivation  of  the  institution,  as 
well  as  to  features  of  social  life  that  are  not  commonly 
classed  as  economic. 

At  some  points  the  discussion  proceeds  on  grounds  of 
economic  theory  or  ethnological  generalisation  that  may 
be  in  some  degree  unfamiliar.  The  introductory  chap¬ 
ter  indicates  the  nature  of  these  theoretical  premises 
sufficiently,  it  is  hoped,  to  avoid  obscurity.  A  more 
explicit  statement  of  the  theoretical  position  involved 
is  made  in  a  series  of  papers  published  in  Volume  IV 
of  the  American  Journal  of  Sociology ,  on  “  The  Instinct 
of  Workmanship  and  the  Irksomeness  of  Labour,”  “The 
Beginnings  of  Ownership,”  and  “The  Barbarian  Status 
of  Women.”  But  the  argument  does  not  rest  on  these 
—  in  part  novel — generalisations  in  such  a  way  that 
it  would  altogether  lose  its  possible  value  as  a  detail 
of  economic  theory  in  case  these  novel  generalisations 
should,  in  the  reader’s  apprehension,  fall  away  through 
being  insufficiently  backed  by  authority  or  data. 


V 


VI 


Preface 


Partly  for  reasons  of  convenience,  and  partly  because 
there  is  less  chance  of  misapprehending  the  sense  of 
phenomena  that  are  familiar  to  all  men,  the  data 
employed  to  illustrate  or  enforce  the  argument  have 
by  preference  been  drawn  from  everyday  life,  by  direct 
observation  or  through  common  notoriety,  rather  than 
from  more  recondite  sources  at  a  farther  remove.  It  is 
hoped  that  no  one  will  find  his  sense  of  literary  or 
scientific  fitness  offended  by  this  recourse  to  homely 
facts,  or  by  what  may  at  times  appear  to  be  a  callous 
freedom  in  handling  vulgar  phenomena  or  phenomena 
whose  intimate  place  in  men’s  life  has  sometimes 
shielded  them  from  the  impact  of  economic  discussion. 

Such  premises  and  corroborative  evidence  as  are 
drawn  from  remoter  sources,  as  well  as  whatever  articles 
of  theory  or  inference  are  borrowed  from  ethnological 
science,  are  also  of  the  more  familiar  and  accessible 
kind  and  should  be  readily  traceable  to  their  source  by 
fairly  well-read  persons.  The  usage  of  citing  sources 
and  authorities  has  therefore  not  been  observed.  Like¬ 
wise  the  few  quotations  that  have  been  introduced, 
chiefly  by  way  of  illustration,  are  also  such  as  will 
commonly  be  recognised  with  sufficient  facility  without 
the  guidance  of  citation. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

Introductory  . 

CHAPTER  II 

Pecuniary  Emulation . 

CHAPTER  III 

Conspicuous  Leisure . 

CHAPTER  IV 

Conspicuous  Consumption . 

CHAPTER  V 

The  Pecuniary  Standard  of  Living 

fc  CHAPTER  VI 

Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste . 

CHAPTER  VII 

Dress  as  an  Expression  of  the  Pecuniary  Culture 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Industrial  Exemption  and  Conservatism 

vii 


PAGE 

I 


22 


•  35 


68 


102 


IJ5 


167 


188 


Contents 


vm 


CHAPTER  IX 

The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits 

CHAPTER  X 

Modern  Survivals  of  Prowess 

CHAPTER  XI 


The  Belief  in  Luck  . 


CHAPTER  XII 

Devout  Observances  .... 


CHAPTER  XIII 

Survivals  of  the  Non-Invidious  Interest 

CHAPTER  XIV  ’ 

The  Higher  Learning  as  an  Expression  of  the  Pecun¬ 
iary  Culture  . 


PAGE 

212 


246 


276 


293 


332 


363 


THE  THEORY  OF  THE  LEISURE  CLASS 


CHAPTER  I 

Introductory 

The  institution  of  a  leisure  class  is  found  in  its  best 
development  at  the  higher  stages  of  the  barbarian 
culture  ;  as,  for  instance,  in  feudal  Europe  or  feudal 
Japan.  In  such  communities  the  distinction  between 
classes  is  very  rigorously  observed  ;  and  the  feature 
of  most  striking  economic  significance  in  these  class 
differences  is  the  distinction  maintained  between  the 
employments  proper  to  the  several  classes.  The  upper 
classes  are  by  custom  exempt  or  excluded  from  indus¬ 
trial  occupations,  and  are  reserved  for  ,  certain  employ¬ 
ments  to  which  a  degree  of  honour  attaches.  Chief 
among  the  honourable  employments  in  any  feudal  com¬ 
munity  is  warfare ;  and  priestly  service  is  commonly 
second  to  warfare.  If  the  barbarian  community  is  not 
notably  warlike,  the  priestly  office  may  take  the  prece¬ 
dence,  with  that  of  the  warrior  second.  But  the  rule 
holds  with  but  slight  exceptions  that,  whether  warriors 
or  priests,  the  upper  classes  are  exempt  from  industrial 
employments,  and  this  exemption  is  the  economic  ex¬ 
pression  of  their  superior  rank.  Brahmin  India  affords 


2  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

a  fair  illustration  of  the  industrial  exemption  of  both 
these  classes.  In  the  communities  belonging  to  the 
higher  barbarian  culture  there  is  a  considerable  differ¬ 
entiation  of  sub-classes  within  what  may  be  compre¬ 
hensively  called  the  leisure  class ;  and  there  is  a 
corresponding  differentiation  of  employments  between 
these  sub-classes.  The  leisure  class  as  a  whole  com¬ 
prises  the  noble  and  the  priestly  classes,  together  with 
much  of  their  retinue.  The  occupations  of  the  class 
are  correspondingly  diversified ;  but  they  have  the 
common  economic  characteristic  of  being  non-industrial. 
These  non-industrial  upper-class  occupations  may  be 
roughly  comprised  under  government,  warfare,  religious 
observances,  and  sports. 

At  an  earlier,  but  not  the  earliest,  stage  of  barbarism, 
the  leisure  class  is  found  in  a  less  differentiated  form. 
Neither  the  class  distinctions  nor  the  distinctions  be¬ 
tween  leisure-class  occupations  are  so  minute  and  intri- 
\cate.  The  Polynesian  islanders  generally  show  this 
stage  of  the  development  in  good  form,  with  the 
exception  that,  owing  to  the  absence  of  large  game, 
hunting  does  not  hold  the  usual  place  of  honour  in  their 
scheme  of  life.  The  Icelandic  community  in  the  time 
of  the  Sagas  also  affords  a  fair  instance.  In  such  a 
community  there  is  a  rigorous  distinction  between 
classes  and  between  the  occupations  peculiar  to  each 
class.  Manual  labour,  industry,  whatever  has  to  do 
1  directly  with  the  everyday  work  of  getting  a  livelihood, 
is  the  exclusive  occupation  of  the  inferior  class.  This 
'inferior  class  includes  slaves  and  other  dependents,  and 
ordinarily  also  all  the  women.  If  there  are  several 


Introductory 


3 


grades  of  aristocracy,  the  women  of  high  rank  are  com¬ 
monly  exempt  from  industrial  employment,  or  at  least 
from  the  more  vulgar  kinds  of  manual  labour.  The  men 
of  the  upper  classes  are  not  only  exempt,  but  by  pre¬ 
scriptive  custom  they  are  debarred,  from  all  industrial 
occupations.  The  range  of  employments  open  to  them 
is  rigidly  defined.  As  on  the  higher  plane  already 
spoken  of,  these  employments  are  government,  warfare, 
religious  observances,  and  sports.  These  four  lines  of 
activity  govern  the  scheme  of  life  of  the  upper  classes, 
and  for  the  highest  rank  —  the  kings  or  chieftains  — 
these  are  the  only  kinds  of  activity  that  custom  or  the 
common  sense  of  the  community  will  allow.  Indeed, 
where  the  scheme  is  well  developed  even  sports  are 
accounted  doubtfully  legitimate  for  the  members  of  the 
highest  rank.  To  the  lower  grades  of  the  leisure  class 
certain  other  employments  are  open,  but  they  are  em¬ 
ployments  that  are  subsidiary  to  one  or  another  of  these 
typical  leisure-class  occupations.  Such  are,  for  instance, 
the  manufacture  and  care  of  arms  and  accoutrements 
and  of  war  canoes,  the  dressing  and  handling  of  horses, 
dogs,  and  hawks,  the  preparation  of  sacred  apparatus, 
etc.  The  lower  classes  are  excluded  from  these  second¬ 
ary  honourable  employments,  except  from  such  as  are 
plainly  of  an  industrial  character  and  are  only  remotely 
related  to  the  typical  leisure-class  occupations. 

If  we  go  a  step  back  of  this  exemplary  barbarian 
culture,  into  the  lower  stages  of  barbarism,  we  no  longer 
find  the  leisure  class  in  fully  developed  form.  But  this 
lower  barbarism  shows  the  usages,  motives,  and  circum¬ 
stances  out  of  which  the  institution  of  a  leisure  class 


4 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


has  arisen,  and  indicates  the  steps  of  its  early  growth. 
Nomadic  hunting  tribes  in  various  parts  of  the  world 
illustrate  these  more  primitive  phases  of  the  differentia¬ 
tion.  Any  one  of  the  North  American  hunting  tribes 
may  be  taken  as  a  convenient  illustration.  These  tribes 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  a  defined  leisure  class. 
There  is  a  differentiation  of  function,  and  there  is  a 
distinction  between  classes  on  the  basis  of  this  differ¬ 
ence  of  function,  but  the  exemption  of  the  superior  class 
from  work  has  not  gone  far  enough  to  make  the  desig¬ 
nation  “  leisure  class  ”  altogether  applicable.  The 
tribes  belonging  on  this  economic  level  have  carried  the 
economic  differentiation  to  the  point  at  which  a  marked 
distinction  is  made  between  the  occupations  of  men  and 
women,  and  this  distinction  is  of  an  invidious  character. 
In  nearly  all  these  tribes  the  women  are,  by  prescrip¬ 
tive  custom,  held  to  those  employments  out  of  which 
the  industrial  occupations  proper  develop  at  the  next 
advance.  The  men  are  exempt  from  these  vulgar  em¬ 
ployments  and  are  reserved  for  war,  hunting,  sports, 
and  devout  observances.  A  very  nice  discrimination  is 
ordinarily  shown  in  this  matter. 

)  This  division  of  labour  coincides  with  the  distinction 
between  the  working  and  the  leisure  class  as  it  appears 
in  the  higher  barbarian  culture.  As  the  diversification 
and  specialisation  of  employments  proceed,  the  line  of 
demarcation  so  drawn  comes  to  divide  the  industrial 
from  the  non-industrial  employments.  The  man’s  occu¬ 
pation  as  it  stands  at  the  earlier  barbarian  stage  is  not 
the  original  out  of  which  any  appreciable  portion  of 
later  industry  has  developed.  In  the  later  development 


Introductory 


5 


it  survives  only  in  employments  that  are  not  classed 
as  industrial,  —  war,  politics,  sports,  learning,  and  the 
priestly  office.  The  only  notable  exceptions  are  a 
portion  of  the  fishery  industry  and  certain  slight 
employments  that  are  doubtfully  to  be  classed  as 
industry ;  such  as  the  manufacture  of  arms,  toys, 
and  sporting  goods.  Virtually  the  whole  range  of 
industrial  employments  is  an  outgrowth  of  what  is 
classed  as  woman’s  work  in  the  primitive  barbarian 
community. 

The  work  of  the  men  in  the  lower  barbarian  culture 
is  no  less  indispensable  to  the  life  of  the  group  than  the 
work  done  by  the  women.  It  may  even  be  that  the 
men’s  work  contributes  as  much  to  the  food  supply  and 
the  other  necessary  consumption  of  the  group.  Indeed, 
so  obvious  is  this  “productive”  character  of  the  men’s 
work  that  in  the  conventional  economic  writings  the 
hunter’s  work  is  taken  as  the  type  of  primitive  industry. 
But  such  is  not  the  barbarian’s  sense  of  the  matter. 
In  his  own  eyes  he  is  not  a  labourer,  and  he  is  not  to  be 
classed  with  the  women  in  this  respect ;  nor  is  his  effort 
to  be  classed  with  the  women’s  drudgery,  as  labour  or 
industry,  in  such  a  sense  as  to  admit  of  its  being  con¬ 
founded  with  the  latter.  There  is  in  all  barbarian  com¬ 
munities  a  profound  sense  of  the  disparity  between 
man’s  and  woman’s  work.  His  work  may  conduce  to 
the  maintenance  of  the  group,  but  it  is  felt  that  it 
does  so  through  an  excellence  and  an  efficacy  of  a  kind 
that  cannot  without  derogation  be  compared  with  the 
uneventful  diligence  of  the  women. 

At  a  farther  step  backward  in  the  cultural  scale  — 


6  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

among  savage  groups  —  the  differentiation  of  employ¬ 
ments  is  still  less  elaborate  and  the  invidious  distinction 
between  classes  and  employments  is  less  consistent  and 
less  rigorous.  Unequivocal  instances  of  a  primitive 
savage  culture  are  hard  to  find.  Few  of  those  groups 
or  communities  that  are  classed  as  “savage”  show  no 
traces  of  regression  from  a  more  advanced  cultural 
stage.  But  there  are  groups  —  some  of  them  appar¬ 
ently  not  the  result  of  retrogression  —  which  show  the 
traits  of  primitive  savagery  with  some  fidelity.  Their 
culture  differs  from  that  of  the  barbarian  communities 
in  the  absence  of  a  leisure  class  and  the  absence,  in 
great  measure,  of  the  animus  or  spiritual  attitude  on 
which  the  institution  of  a  leisure  class  rests.  These 
communities  of  primitive  savages  in  which  there  is  no 
hierarchy  of  economic  classes  make  up  but  a  small  and 
inconspicuous  fraction  of  the  human  race.  As  good  an 
instance  of  this  phase  of  culture  as  may  be  had  is  af¬ 
forded  by  the  tribes  of  the  Andamans,  or  by  the  Todas 
of  the  Nilgiri  Hills.  The  scheme  of  life  of  these  groups 
at  the  time  of  their  earliest  contact  with  Europeans 
seems  to  have  been  nearly  typical,  so  far  as  regards  the 
absence  of  a  leisure  class.  As  a  further  instance  might 
be  cited  the  Ainu  of  Yezo,  and,  more  doubtfully,  also 
some  Bushman  and  Eskimo  groups.  Some  Pueblo  com¬ 
munities  are  less  confidently  to  be  included  in  the  same 
class.  Most,  if  not  all,  of  the  communities  here  cited  may 
well  be  cases  of  degeneration  from  a  higher  barbarism, 
rather  than  bearers  of  a  culture  that  has  never  risen 
above  its  present  level.  If  so,  they  are  for  the  present 
purpose  to  be  taken  with  allowance,  but  they  may  serve 


Introductory 


7 


none  the  less  as  evidence  to  the  same  effect  as  if  they 
were  really  “primitive”  populations. 

These  communities  that  are  without  a  defined  leisure 
class  resemble  one  another  also  in  certain  other  features 
of  their  social  structure  and  manner  of  life.  They  are 
small  groups  and  of  a  simple  (archaic)  structure ;  they 
are  commonly  peaceable  and  sedentary ;  they  are  poor ; 
and  individual  ownership  is  not  a  dominant  feature  of 
their  economic  system.  At  the  same  time  it  does  not 
follow  that  these  are  the  smallest  of  existing  communi¬ 
ties,  or  that  their  social  structure  is  in  all  respects  the 
least  differentiated  ;  nor  does  the  class  necessarily  in¬ 
clude  all  primitive  communities  which  have  no  defined 
system  of  individual  ownership.  But  it  is  to  be  noted 
that  the  class  seems  to  include  the  most  peaceable  — 
perhaps  all  the  characteristically  peaceable  —  primitive 
groups  of  men.  Indeed,  the  most  notable  trait  common 
to  members  of  such  communities  is  a  certain  amiable 
inefficiency  when  confronted  with  force  or  fraud. 

The"  evidence  afforded  by  the  usages  and  cultural 
traits  of  communities  at  a  low  stage  of  development 
indicates  that  the  institution  of  a  leisure  class  has 
emerged  gradually  during  the  trmasitiottTrornNprimitive 
savagery  to  barb ar  is  m> A r  more  precisely,  durinjy-the 


transition  from  a  peaceable  to  a  consistently  warlike 
habit  of  life.  The  conditions  apparently  necessary  to 
its  emergence  in  a  consistent  form  are:  (i)  the  com¬ 
munity  must  be  of  a  predatory  habit  of  life  (war  or  the 
hunting  of  large  game  or  both) ;  that  is  to  say,  the  men, 
who  constitute  the  inchoate  leisure  class  in  these  cases, 
must  be  habituated  to  the  infliction  of  injury  by  force 


8 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


and  stratagem  ;  (2)  subsistence  must  be  obtainable  on 
sufficiently  easy  terms  to  admit  of  the  exemption  of  a 
considerable  portion  of  the  community  from  steady 
application  to  a  routine  of  labour.  The  institution  of  a 
leisure  class  is  the  outgrowth  of  an  early  discrimination 
between  employments,  according  to  which  some  employ¬ 
ments  are  worthy  and  others  unworthy.  Under  this 
ancient  distinction  the  worthy  employments  are  those 
which  may  be  classed  as  exploit ;  unworthy  are  those 
necessary  everyday  employments  into  which  no  appre¬ 
ciable  element  of  exploit  enters. 

This  distinction  has  but  little  obvious  significance  in 
a  modern  industrial  community,  and  it  has,  therefore, 
received  but  slight  attention  at  the  hands  of  economic 
writers.  When  viewed  in  the  light  of  that  modern 
common  sense  which  has  guided  economic  discussion, 
it  seems  formal  and  insubstantial.  But  it  persists  with 

1 

great  tenacity  as  a  commonplace  preconception  even  in 
modern  life,  as  is  shown,  for  instance,  by  our  habitual 
aversion  to  menial  employments.  It  is  a  distinction  of  a 
personal  kind  —  of  superiority  and  inferiority.  In  the 
earlier  stages  of  culture,  when  the  personal  force  of  the 
individual  counted  more  immediately  and  obviously  in 
shaping  the  course  of  events,  the  element  of  exploit 
counted  for  more  in  the  everyday  scheme  of  life.  In¬ 
terest  centred  about  this  fact  to  a  greater  degree. 
Consequently  a  distinction  proceeding  o*n  this  ground 
seemed  more  imperative  and  more  definitive  then  than 
is  the  case  today.  As  a  fact  in  the  sequence  of  devel¬ 
opment,  therefore,  the  distinction  is  a  substantial  one 
and  rests  on  sufficiently  valid  and  cogent  grounds. 


Introductory 


9 


The  ground  on  which  a  discrimination  between  facts 
is  habitually  made  changes  as  the  interest  from  which 
the  facts  are  habitually  viewed  changes.  Those  feat¬ 
ures  of  the  facts  at  hand  are  salient  and  substantial 
upon  which  the  dominant  interest  of  the  time  throws 
its  light.  Any  given  ground  of  distinction  will  seem 
insubstantial  to  any  one  who  habitually  apprehends 
the  facts  in  question  from  a  different  point  of  view  and 
values  them  for  a  different  purpose.  The  habit  of  dis¬ 
tinguishing  and  classifying  the  various  purposes  and 
directions  of  activity  prevails  of  necessity  always  and 
everywhere ;  for  it  is  indispensable  in  reaching  a  work¬ 
ing  theory  or  scheme  of  life.  The  particular  point  of 
view,  or  the  particular  characteristic  that  is  pitched  upon 
as  definitive  in  the  classification  of  the  facts  of  life  de¬ 
pends  upon  the  interest  from  which  a  discrimination 
of  the  facts  is  sought.  The  grounds  of  discrimination^ 
and  the  norm  of  procedure  in  classifying  the  facts, 
therefore,  progressively  change  as  the  growth  of  culture 
proceeds  ;  for  the  end  for  which  the  facts  of  life  are 
apprehended  changes,  and  the  point  of  view^conse- 
quently  changes  also.  So  that  what  are  recognised  as 
the  salient  and  decisive  features  of  a  class  of  activities 
or  of  a  social  class  at  one  stage  of  culture  will  not  retain 
the  same  relative  importance  for  the  purposes  of  classi¬ 
fication  at  any  subsequent  stage. 


But  the  change  of  Standards  and  points  of  view  is 
gradual  only,  and  it  seldom  resultTtrTthe  subversion  or 
entire  suppression  of  a  standpoint  once  accepted.  A 
distinction  is  still  habitually  made  between  industrial 
and  non-industrial  occupations ;  and  this  modern  dis- 


IO 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


tinction  is  a  transmuted  form  of  the  barbarian  distinc¬ 
tion  between  exploit  and  drudgery.  Such  employments 
as  warfare,  politics,  public  worship,  and  public  merry¬ 
making,  are  felt,  in  the  popular  apprehension,  to  differ 
intrinsically  from  the  labour  that  has  to  do  with  elabo¬ 
rating  the  material  means  of  life.  The  precise  line  of 
demarcation  is  not  the  same  as  it  was  in  the  early 
barbarian  scheme,  but  the  broad  distinction  has  not 
fallen  into  disuse. 

The  tacit,  common-sense  distinction  to-day  is,  in  ef¬ 
fect,  that  any  effort  is  to  be  accounted  industrial  only 
so  far  as  its  ultimate  purpose  is  the  utilisation  of  non¬ 
human  things.  The  coercive  utilisation  of  man  by  man 
is  not  felt  to  be  an  industrial  function  ;  but  all  effort 
directed  to  enhance  human  life  by  taking  advantage  of 
the  non-human  environment  is  classed  together  as  in¬ 
dustrial  activity.  By  the  economists  who  have  best 
retained  and  adapted  the  classical  tradition,  man’s 
“power  over  nature”  is  currently  postulated  as-  the 


characteristic  fact  of  industrial  productivity:  This  indus¬ 
trial  power  over  nature  isTaken  to  include  man’s  power 
over  the  life  of  the  beasts  and  over  all  the  elemental 
forces.  A  line  is  in  this  way  drawn  between  mankind 
and  brute  creation. 

In  other  times  and  among  men  imbued  with  a  different 
body  of  preconceptions,  this  line  is  not  drawn  precisely 
as  we  draw  it  to-day.  In  the  savage  or  the  barbarian 
scheme  of  life  it  is  drawn  in  a  different  place  and  in 
another  way.  In  all  communities  under  the  barbarian 
culture  there  is  an  alert  and  pervading  sense  of  antithe¬ 
sis  between  two  comprehensive  groups  of  phenomena,  in 


Introductory 


1 1 

one  of  which  barbarian  man  includes  himself,  and  in  the 
other,  his  victual.  There  is  a  felt  antithesis  between 
economic  and  non-economic  phenomena,  but  it  is  not 
conceived  in  the  modern  fashion  ;  it  lies  not  between 
man  and  brute  creation,  but  between  animate  and  inert 
things. 

It  may  be  an  excess  of  caution  at  this  day  to  explain 
that  the  barbarian  notion  which  it  is  here  intended  to 
convey  by  the  term  “animate”  is  not  the  same  as  would 
be  conveyed  by  the  word  “living.”  The  term  does  not 
cover  all  living  things,  and  it  does  cover  a  great  many 
others.  Such  a  striking  natural  phenomenon  as  a  storm, 
a  disease,  a  waterfall,  are  recognised  as  “animate”; 
while  fruits  and  herbs,  and  even  inconspicuous  animals, 
such  as  house-flies,  maggots,  lemmings,  sheep,  are  not 
ordinarily  apprehended  as  “animate”  except  when  taken 
collectively.  As  here  used  the  term  does  not  neces¬ 
sarily  imply  an  indwelling  soul  or  spirit.  The  concept 
includes  such  things  as  in  the  apprehension  of  the  ani¬ 
mistic  savage  or  barbarian  are  formidable  by  virtue  of  a 
real  or  imputed  habit  of  initiating  action.  This  category 
comprises  a  large  number  and  range  of  natural  objects 
and  phenomena.  Such  a  distinction  between  the  inert 
and  the  active  is  still  present  in  the  habits  of  thought 
of  unreflecting  persons,  and  it  still  profoundly  affects 
the  prevalent  theory  of  human  life  and  of  natural  pro- 

4 

cesses ;  but  it  does  not  pervade  our  daily  life  to  the 
extent  or  with  the  far-reaching,  practical  consequences 
that  are  apparent  at  earlier  stages  of  culture  and  belief. 

To  the  mind  of  the  barbarian,  the  elaboration  and 
utilisation  of  what  is  afforded  by  inert  nature  is  activity 


12 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


on  quite  a  different  plane  from  his  dealings  with  “  ani¬ 
mate  ”  things  and  forces.  The  line  of  demarcation  may 
be  vague  and  shifting,  but  the  broad  distinction  is  suffi¬ 
ciently  real  and  cogent  to  influence  the  barbarian  scheme 
of  life.  To  the  class  of  things  apprehended  as  animate, 
the  barbarian  fancy  imputes  an  unfolding  of  activity 
directed  to  some  end.  It  is  this  teleological  unfolding 
of  activity  that  constitutes  any  object  or  phenomenon 
an  “animate”  fact.  Wherever  the  unsophisticated 
savage  or  barbarian  meets  with  activity  that  is  at  all 
obtrusive,  he  construes  it  in  the  only  terms  that  are 
ready  to  hand  —  the  terms  immediately  given  in  his 
consciousness  of  his  own  actions.  Activity  is,  therefore, 
assimilated  to  human  action,  and  active  objects  are  in 
so  far  assimilated  to  the  human  agent.  Phenomena  of 
this  character  —  especially  those  whose  behaviour  is 
notably  formidable  or  baffling  —  have  to  be  met  in  a 
different  spirit  and  with  proficiency  of  a  different  kind 
from  what  is  required  in  dealing  with  inert  things.  To 
deal  successfully  with  such  phenomena  is  a  work  of 
exploit  rather  than  of  industry.  It  is  an  assertion  of 
prowess,  not  of  diligence. 

/Under  Phe-gffidanee-of  this  naive  discrimination  be¬ 
tween  the  inert  and  the  animate,  the  activities  of  the 
primitive  social  group  tend  to  fall  into  two  classes, 
which  would  in  modern  phrase  be  called  exploit  and 
-industry.  Industry  is  effort  that  goesTo  create  a -new 
thing,  ^wifh~a:"new  purpose* “given  it  by  the  fashioning 
hand  of  its  maker  out  of  passive  (“brute”)  material; 
while  exploit,  so  far  as  it  results  in  an  outcome  useful 
to  the  agent,  is  the  conversion  to  his  own  ends  of 


Introductory 


13 


energies  previously  directed  to  some  other  end  by  an¬ 
other  agent.  We  still  speak  of  “  brute  matter  ”  with 
something  of  the  barbarian’s  realisation  of  a  profound 
significance  in  the  term. 

The  distinction  between  exploit  and  drudgery  coin¬ 
cides  with  a  difference  between  the  sexes.  The  sexes 
differ,  not  only  in  stature  and  muscular  force,  but  per¬ 
haps  even  more  decisively  in  temperament,  and  this 
must  early  have  given  rise  to  a  corresponding  division 
of  labour.  The  general  range  of  activities  that  come 
under  the  head  of  exploit  falls  to  the  males  as  being 
the  stouter,  more  massive,  better  capable  of  a  sudden 
and  violent  strain,  and  more  readily  inclined  to  self- 
assertion,  active  emulation,  and  aggression.  The  dif¬ 
ference  in  mass,  in  physiological  character,  and  in 
temperament  may  be  slight  among  the  members  of  the 
primitive  group ;  it  appears,  in  fact,  to  be  relatively 
slight  and  inconsequential  in  some  of  the  more  archaic 
communities  with  which  we  are  acquainted  —  as  for 
instance  the  tribes  of  the  Andamans.  But  so  soon  as 
a  differentiation  of  function  has  well  begun  on  the  lines 
marked  out  by  this  difference  in  physique  and  animus, 
the  original  difference  between  the  sexes  will  itself 
widen.  A  cumulative  process  of  selective  adaptation 
to  the  new  distribution  of  employments  will  set  in, 
especially  if  the  habitat  or  the  fauna  with  which  the 
group  is  in  contact  is  such  as  to  call  for  a  considerable 
exercise  of  the  sturdier  virtues.  The  habitual  pursuit 
of  large  game  requires  more  of  the  manly  qualities  of 
massiveness,  agility,  and  ferocity,  and  it  can  therefore 
scarcely  fail  to  hasten  and  widen  the  differentiation  of 


14 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


functions  between  the  sexes.  And  so  soon  as  the 
group  comes  into  hostile  contact  with  other  groups,  the 
divergence  of  function  will  take  on  the  developed  form 
of  a  distinction  between  exploit  and  industry. 

In  such  a  predatory  group  of  hunters  it  comes  to  be 
the  able-bodied  men’s  office  to  fight  and  hunt.  The 
women  do  what  other  work  there  is  to  do  —  other  mem¬ 
bers  who  are  unfit  for  man’s  work  being  for  this  purpose 
classed  with  the  women.  But  the  men’s  hunting  and 
fighting  are  both  of  the  same  general  character.  Both 
are  of  a  predatory  nature ;  the  warrior  and  the  hunter 
alike  reap  where  they  have  not  strewn.  Their  aggres- 
,  sive  assertion  of  force  and  sagacity  differs  obviously 
from  the  women’s  assiduous  and  uneventful  shaping  of 
materials  ;  it  is  not  to  be  accounted  productive  labour, 
i  but  rather  an  acquisition  of  substance  by  seizure.  Such 
being  the  barbarian  man’s  work,  in  its  best  develop¬ 
ment  and  widest  divergence  from  women’s  work,  any 
effort  that  does  not  involve  an  assertion  of  prowess 
comes  to  be  unworthy  of  the  man.  As  the  tradition 
gains  consistency,  the  common  sense  of  the  community 
erects  it  into  a  canon  of  conduct ;  so  that  no  employ¬ 
ment  and  no  acquisition  is  morally  possible  to  the  self- 
respecting  man  at  this  cultural  stage,  except  such  as 
proceeds  on  the  basis  of  prowess  —  force  or  fraud. 
When  the  predatory  habit  of  life  has  been  settled  upon 
the  group  by  long  habituation,  it  becomes  the  able- 
bodied  man’s  accredited  office  in  the  social  economy 
to  kill,  to  destroy  such  competitors  in  the  struggle  for 
existence  as  attempt  to  resist  or  elude  him,  to  overcome 
and  reduce  to  subservience  those  alien  forces  that  assert 


Introductory 


15 


themselves  refractorily  in  the  environment.  So  tena¬ 
ciously  and  with  such  nicety  is  this  theoretical  dis¬ 
tinction  between  exploit  and  drudgery  adhered  to  that 
in  many  hunting  tribes  the  man  must  not  bring  home 
the  game  which  he  has  killed,  but  must  send  his  woman 
to  perform  that  baser  office. 

As  has  already  been  indicated,  the  distinction  be¬ 
tween  exploit  and  drudgery  is  an  invidious  distinction 
between  employments.  Those  employments  which  are 
to  be  classed  as  exploit  are  worthy,  honourable,  noble  ; 
other  employments,  which  do  not  contain  this  element 
of  exploit,  and  especially  those  which  imply  subservi¬ 
ence  or  submission,  are  unworthy,  debasing,  ignoble. 
The  concept  of  dignity,  worth,  or  honour,  as  applied 
either  to  persons  or  conduct,  is  of  first-rate  conse¬ 
quence  in  the  development  of  classes  and  of  class  dis¬ 
tinctions,  and  it  is  therefore  necessary  to  say  something 
of  its  derivation  and  meaning.  Its  psychological  ground 
may  be  indicated  in  outline  as  follows. 

As  a  matter  of  selective  necessity,  man  is  an  agent. 
He  is,  in  his  own  apprehension,  a  centre  of  unfolding 
impulsive  activity  —  “  teleological  ”  activity.  He  is  an 
agent,  seeking  in  every  act  the  accomplishment  of  some 
concrete,  objective,  impersonal  end.  By  force  of  his 
being  such  an  agent  he  is  possessed  of  a  taste  for  effec¬ 
tive  work,  and  a  distaste  for  futile  effort.  He  has  a 
sense  of  the  merit  of  serviceability  or  efficiency  and  of 
the  demerit  of  futility,  waste,  or  incapacity.  This  apti¬ 
tude  or  propensity  may  be  called  the  instinct  of  work¬ 
manship.  Wherever  the  circumstances  or  traditions  of 


1 6  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

life  lead  to  an  habitual  comparison  of  one  person  with 
another  in  point  of  efficiency,  the  instinct  of  workman¬ 
ship  works  out  in  an  emulative  or  invidious  comparison 
of  persons.  The  extent  to  which  this  result  follows 
depends  in  some  considerable  degree  on  the  tempera¬ 
ment  of  the  population.  In  any  community  where  such 
an  invidious  comparison  of  persons  is  habitually  made, 
visible  success  becomes  an  end  sought  for  its  own  utility 
as  a  basis  of  esteem.  Esteem  is  gained  and  dispraise 
is  avoided  by  putting  one’s  efficiency  in  evidence.  The 
result  is  that  the  instinct  of  workmanship  works  out  in 
an  emulative  demonstration  of  force. 

During  that  primitive  phase  of  social  development, 
when  the  community  is  still  habitually  peaceable,  per¬ 
haps  sedentary,  and  without  a  developed  system  of  indi¬ 
vidual  ownership,  the  efficiency  of  the  individual  can  be 
shown  chiefly  and  most  consistently  in  some  employ¬ 
ment  that  goes  to  further  the  life  of  the  group.  What 
emulation  of  an  economic  kind  there  is  between  the 
members  of  such  a  group  will  be  chiefly  emulation  in 
industrial  serviceability.  At  the  same  time  the  incen¬ 
tive  to  emulation  is  not  strong,  nor  is  the  scope  for 
emulation  large. 

When  the  community  passes  from  peaceable  savagery 
to  a  predatory  phase  of  life,  the  conditions  of  emulation 
change.  The  opportunity  and  the  incentive  to  emula¬ 
tion  increase  greatly  in  scope  and  urgency.  The  ac¬ 
tivity  of  the  men  more  and  more  takes  on  the  character 
of  exploit  ;  and  an  invidious  comparison  of  one  hunter 
or  warrior  with  another  grows  continually  easier  and 
more  habitual.  Tangible  evidences  of  prowess — tro- 


Introductory 


1 7 


phies — find  a  place  in  men’s  habits  of  thought  as  an 
essential  feature  of  the  paraphernalia  of  life.  Booty, 
trophies  of  the  chase  or  of  the  raid,  come  to  be  prized 
as  evidence  of  preeminent  force.  Aggression  becomes 
the  accredited  form  of  action,  and  booty  serves  as  prima 
facie  evidence  of  successful  aggression.  As  accepted 
at  this  cultural  stage,  the  accredited,  worthy  form  of 
self-assertion  is  contest  ;  and  useful  articles  or  services 
obtained  by  seizure  or  compulsion,  serve  as  a  conven¬ 
tional  evidence  of  successful  contest.  Therefore,  by 
contrast,  the  obtaining  of  goods  by  other  methods  than 
seizure  comes  to  be  accounted  unworthy  of  man  in  his 
best  estate.  The  performance  of  productive  work,  or 
employment  in  personal  service,  falls  under  the  same 
odium  for  the  same  reason.  An  invidious  distinction 
in  this  way  arises  between  exploit  and  acquisition  by 
seizure  on  the  one  hand  and  industrial  employment  on 
the  other  hand.  Labour  acquires  a  character  of  irk¬ 
someness  by  virtue  of  the  indignity  imputed  to  it. 

With  the  primitive  barbarian,  before  the  simple  con¬ 
tent  of  the  notion  has  been  obscured  by  its  own  ramifi¬ 
cations  and  by  a  secondary  growth  of  cognate  ideas, 
“honourable”  seems  to  connote  nothing  else  than  asser¬ 
tion  of  superior  force.  “  Honourable  ”  is  “  formidable  ”  ; 
“worthy”  is  “prepotent.”  A  honorific  act  is  in  the 
last  analysis  little  if  anything  else  than  a  recognised 
successful  act  of  aggression ;  and  where  aggression 
means  conflict  with  men  and  beasts,  the  activity  which 
comes  to  be  especially  and  primarily  honourable  is  the 
assertion  of  the  strong  hand.  The  nai've,  archaic  habit 
of  construing  all  manifestations  of  force  in  terms  of 


c 


1 8  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

personality  or  “will  power”  greatly  fortifies  this  con¬ 
ventional  exaltation  of  the  strong  hand.  Ijfonorific  epi- 
"thetSjTn  vogue  among  barbarian  tribes  as  well  as  among 
peoples  of  a  more  advanced  culture,  commonly  bear  the 
stamp  of  this  unsophisticated  sense  of  honour.  Epithets 
and  titles  used  in  addressing  chieftains,  and  in  the  pro¬ 
pitiation  of  kings  and  gods,  very  commonly  impute  a 
propensity  for  overbearing  violence  and  an  irresistible 
devastating  force  to  the  person  who  is  to  be  propi¬ 
tiated.  This  holds  true  to  an  extent  also  in  the  more 
civilised  communities  of  the  present  day.  The  predi¬ 
lection  shown  in  heraldic  devices  for  the  more  rapa¬ 
cious  beasts  and  birds  of  prey  goes  to  enforce  the  same 
view. 

Under  this  common-sense  barbarian  appreciation  of 
worth  or  honour,  the  taking  of  life  —  the  killing  of  formi¬ 
dable  competitors,  whether  brute  or  human  —  is  honour¬ 
able  in  the  highest  degree.  And  this  high  office  of 
slaughter,  as  an  expression  of  the  slayer’s  prepotence, 
casts  a  glamour  of  worth  over  every  act  of  slaughter 
and  over  all  the  tools  and  accessories  of  the  act.  Arms 
are  honourable,  and  the  use  of  them,  even  in  seeking  the 
life  of  the  meanest  creatures  of  the  fields,  becomes  a 
honorific  employment.  At  the  same  time,  employment 
in  industry  becomes  correspondingly  odious,  and,  in  the 
common-sense  apprehension,  the  handling  of  the  tools 
and  implements  of  industry  falls  beneath  the  dignity  of 
able-bodied  men.  Labour  becomes  irksome. 

It  is  here  assumed  that  in  the  sequence  of  cultural 
evolution  primitive  groups  of  men  have  passed  from  an 


Introductory 


19 


initial  peaceable  stage  to  a  subsequent  stage  at  which 
fighting  is  the  avowed  and  characteristic  employment 
of  the  group.  But  it  is  not  implied  that  there  has  been 
an  abrupt  transition  from  unbroken  peace  and  good-will 
to  a  later  or  higher  phase  of  life  in  which  the  fact  of 
combat  occurs  for  the  first  time.  Neither  is  it  implied 
that  all  peaceful  industry  disappears  on  the  transition  to 
the  predatory  phase  of  culture.  Some  fighting,  it  is  safe 
to  say,  would  be  met  with  at  any  early  stage  of  social 
development.  Fights  would  occur  with  more  or  less 
frequency  through  sexual  competition.  The  known 
habits  of  primitive  groups,  as  well  as  the  habits  of  the 
anthropoid  apes,  argue  to  that  effect,  and  the  evidence 
from  the  well-known  promptings  of  human  nature 
enforces  the  same  view. 

It  may  therefore  be  objected  that  there  can  have 
been  no  such  initial  stage  of  peaceable  life  as  is  here 
assumed.  There  is  no  point  in  cultural  evolution  prior 
to  which  fighting  does  not  occur.  But  the  point  in 
question  is  not  as  to  the  occurrence  of  combat,  occa¬ 
sional  or  sporadic,  or  even  more  or  less  frequent  and 
habitual;  it  is  a  question  as  to  the  occurrence  of  an 
habitual  bellicose  frame  of  mind  —  a  prevalent  habit  of 
judging  facts  and  events  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
fight.  The  predatory  phase  of  culture  is  attained  only 
(when  the  predatory  attitude  has  become  the  habitual 
and  accredited  spiritual  attitude  for  the  members  of  the 
group;  when  the  fight  has  become  the  dominant  note 
in  the  current  theory  of  life;  when  the  common-sense 
appreciation  of  men  and  things  has  come  to  be  an  appre¬ 
ciation  with  a  view  to  combat. 


20  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

The  substanfiaTclifference  between  the  peaceable  and 
the  predatory  phase  of  culture,  therefore,  is  a  spiritual 
difference,  not  a  mechanical  one.  /  The  change  in 
spiritual  attitude  is  the  outgrowth  of  a  change  in  the 
material  facts  of  the  life  of  the  group,  and  it  comes  on 
gradually  as  the  material  circumstances  favourable  to  a 
predatory  attitude  supervene.  The  inferior  limit  of  the 
predatory  culture  is  an  industrial  limit.  Predation  can¬ 
not  become  the, habitual,  conventional  resource  of  any 
group  or  any  class  until  industrial  methods  have  been 
developed  to  such  a  degree  of  efficiency  as  to  leave 
a  margin  worth  fighting  for,  above  the  subsistence  of 
those  engaged  in  getting  a  living.  The  transition  from 
peace  to  predation  therefore  depends  on  the  growth  of 
technical  knowledge  and  the  use  of  tools.  A  predatory 
culture  is  similarly  impracticable  in  early  times,  until 
weapons  have  been  developed  to  such  a  point  as  to 
make  man  a  formidable  animal.  The  early  develop¬ 
ment  of  tools  and  of  weapons  is  of  course  the  same 
fact  seen  from  two  different  points  of  view. 

The  life  of  a  given  group  would  be  characterised  as 
peaceable  so  long  as  habitual  recourse  to  combat  has  not 
brought  the  fight  into  the  foreground  in  men’s  every¬ 
day  thoughts,  as  a  dominant  feature  of  the  life  of  man. 
A  group  may  evidently  attain  such  a  predatory  attitude 
with  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  completeness,  so  that 
its  scheme  of  life  and  canons  of  conduct  may  be  con¬ 
trolled  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  by .  the  predatory 
animus.  The  predatory  phase  of  culture  is  therefore 
conceived  to  come  on  gradually,  through  a  cumulative 
growth  of  predatory  aptitudes,  habits,  and  traditions ; 


Introductory 


21 


this  growth  being  due  to  a  change  in  the  circumstances 
of  the  group’s  life,  of  such  a  kind  as  to  develop  and 
conserve  those  traits  of  human  nature  and  those  tradi¬ 
tions  and  norms  of  conduct  that  make  for  a  predatory 
rather  than  a  peaceable  life. 

The  evidence  for  the  hypothesis  that  there  has  been 
such  a  peaceable  stage  of  primitive  culture  is  in  great 
part  drawn  from  psychology  rather  than  from  ethnology, 
and  cannot  be  detailed  here.  It  will  be  recited  in  part 
in  a  later  chapter,  in  discussing  the  survival  of  archaic 
traits  of  human  nature  under  the  modern  culture. 


CHAPTER  II 


Pecuniary  Emulation 

In  the  sequence  of  cultural  evolution  the  emergence 
of  a  leisure  class  coincides  with  the  beginning  of  owner¬ 
ship.  This  is  necessarily  the  case,  for  these  two  institu¬ 
tions  result  from  the  same  set  of  economic  forces.  In 
the  inchoate  phase  of  their  development  they  are  but 
different  aspects  of  the  same  general  facts  of  social 
structure. 

It  is  as  elements  of  social  structure  —  conventional 
facts  —  that  leisure  and  ownership  are  matters  of  inter¬ 
est  for  the  purpose  in  hand.  An  habitual  neglect  of 
work  does  not  constitute  a  leisure  class  ;  neither  does 
the  mechanical  fact  of  use  and  consumption  constitute 
ownership.  The  present  inquiry,  therefore,  is  not  con¬ 
cerned  with  the  beginning  of  indolence,  nor  with  the 
beginning  of  the  appropriation  of  useful  articles  to 
individual  consumption.  The  point  in  question  is  the 
origin  and  nature  of  a  conventional  leisure  class  on  the 
one  hand  and  the  beginnings  of  individual  ownership  as 
a  conventional  right  or  equitable  claim  on  the  other  hand. 

The  early  differentiation  out  of  which  the  distinction 
between  a  leisure  and  a  working  class  arises  is  a  divi¬ 
sion  maintained  between  men’s  and  women’s  work  in  the 
lower  stages  of  barbarism.  Likewise  the  earliest  form 
of  ownership  is  an  ownership  of  the  women  by  the  able- 


22 


Pecuniary  Emulation  23 

bodied  men  of  the  community.  The  facts  may  be  ex¬ 
pressed  in  more  general  terms,  and  truer  to  the  import 
of  the  barbarian  theory  of  life,  by  saying  that  it  is  an 
ownership  of  the  woman  by  the  man. 

There  was  undoubtedly  some  appropriation  of  useful 

articles  before  the  custom  of  appropriating  women  arose. 

The  usages  of  existing  archaic  communities  in  which 

there  is  no  ownership  of  women  is  warrant  for  such  a 

view.  In  all  communities  the  members,  both  male  and 

female,  habitually  appropriate  to  their  individual  use  a 

variety  of  useful  things  ;  but  these  useful  things  are  not 

thought  of  as  owned  by  the  person  who  appropriates 

and  consumes  them.  The  habitual  appropriation  and 

consumption  of  certain  slight  personal  effects  goes  on 

without  raising  the  question  of  ownership  :  that  is  to 

say,  the  qr 

extraneous 
— * — ^ _ 

The  ownership  of  women  begins  in  the  lower  barba¬ 
rian  stages  of  culture,  apparently  with  the  seizure  of 
female  captives.  The  original  reason  for  the  seizure 
and  appropriation  of  women  seems  to  have  been  their 
usefulness  as  trophies.  The  practice  of  seizing  women 
from  the  enemy  as  trophies,  gave  rise  to  a  form  of 
ownership-marriage,  resulting  in  a  household  with  a 
male  head.  This  was  followed  by  an  extension  of 
slavery  to  other  captives  and  inferiors,  besides  women, 
and  by  an  extension  of  ownership-marriage  to  other 
women  than  those  seized  from  the  enemy.  The  out¬ 
come  of  emulation  under  the  circumstances  of  a  preda¬ 
tory  life,  therefore,  has  been  on  the  one  hand  a  form 
of  marriage  resting  on  coercion,  and  on  the  other  hand 


estion  of  a  conventional,  equitable  claim  Jto 
things. 


24 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

the  custom  of  ownership.  The  two  institutions  are 
not  distinguishable  in  the  initial  phase  of  their  develop¬ 
ment  ;  both  arise  from  the  desire  of  the  successful  men 
to  put  their  prowess  in  evidence  by  exhibiting  some 
durable  result  of  their  exploits.  Both  also  minister  to 
that  propensity  for  mastery  which  pervades  all  predatory 
I  communities.  From  the  ownership  of  women  the  con¬ 
cept  of  ownership  extends  itself  to  include  the  products 
of  their  industry,  and  so  there  arises  the  ownership  of 
things  as  well  as  of  persons. 

In  this  way  a  consistent  system  of  property  in  goods 
is  gradually  installed.  And  although  in  the  latest  stages 
of  the  development,  the  serviceability  of  goods  for  con¬ 
sumption  has  come  to  be  the  most  obtrusive  element  of 
their  value,  still,  wealth  has  by  no  means  yet  lost  its 
utility  as  a  honorific  evidence  of  the  owner’s  prepotence. 

i  Wherever  the  institution  of  private  property  is  found, 
even  in  a  slightly  developed  form,  the  economic  process 
bears  the  character  of  a  struggle  between  men  _for  the 
possession  of  goods.  It  has  been  customary  in  eco¬ 
nomic  theory,  and  especially  among  those  economists 
who  adhere  with  least  faltering  to  the  body  of  moder¬ 
nised  classical  doctrines,  to  construe  this  struggle  for 
wealth  as  being  substantially  a  struggle  for  subsistence. 
Such  is,  no  doubt,  its  character  in  large  part  during  the 
earlier  and  less  efficient  phases  of  industry.  Such  is 
also  its  character  in  all  cases  where  the  “  niggardliness 
of  nature  ”  is  so  strict  as  to  afford  but  a  scanty  liveli¬ 
hood  to  the  community  in  return  for  strenuous  and 
unremitting  application  to  the  business  of  getting  the 


Pecuniary  Emulation 


25 


means  of  subsistence.  But  in  all  progressing  commu¬ 
nities  an  advance  is  presently  made  beyond  this  early 
stage  of  technological  development.  Industrial  effi¬ 
ciency  is  presently  carried  to  such  a  pitch  as  to  afford 
something  appreciably  more  than  a  bare  livelihood  to 
those  engaged  in  the  industrial  process.  It  has  not 
been  unusual  for  economic  theory  to  speak  of  the 
further  struggle  for  wealth  on  this  new  industrial  basis 
as  a  competition  for  an  increase  of  the  comforts  of  life, 
—  primarily  for  an  increase  of  the  physical  comforts 
which  the  consumption  of  goods  affords. 

The  end  of  acquisition  and  accumulation  is  conven¬ 
tionally  held  to  be  the  consumption  of  the  goods  accu¬ 
mulated —  whether  it  is  consumption  directly  by  the 
owner  of  the  goods  or  by  the  household  attached  to 
him  and  for  this  purpose  identified  with  him  in  theory. 
This  is  at  least  felt  to  be  the  economically  legitimate 
end  of  acquisition,  which  alone  it  is  incumbent  on  the 
theory  to  take  account  of.  Such  consumption  may 
of  course  be  conceived  to  serve  the  consumer’s  physical 
wants  —  his  physical  comfort  —  or  his  so-called  higher 
wants  —  spiritual,  aesthetic,  intellectual,  or  what  not ; 
the  latter  class  of  wants  being  served  indirectly  by  an 
expenditure  of  goods,  after  the  fashion  familiar  to  all 
economic  readers. 

But  it  is  only  when  taken  in  a  sense  far  removed 
from  its  naive  meaning  that  consumption  of  goods  can 
be  said  to  afford  the  incentive  from  which  accumulation 
invariably  proceeds.  The  motive  that  lies  at  thej*oot 
of  m.vn^rg'hip  is  emnhtion  ;  and  the  same  motive  of 
emulation  continues  active  in  the  further  development 


26 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


of  the  institution  to  which  it  has  given  rise  and  in  the 
development  of  all  those  features  of  the  social  struct 
ure  which  this  institution  of  ownership  touches.  Tl)ie 
possession  of  wealth  confers  honour ;  it  is  an  invidious 
distinction.  Nothing  equally  cogent  can  be\said  for  the*/ 
consumption  of  goods,  nor  for  any  other  conceival 
incentive  to  acquisition,  and  especially  not  for  any  in¬ 
centive  to  the  accumulation  of  wealth. 

It  is  of  course  not  to  be  overlooked  that  in  a  com¬ 
munity  where  nearly  all  goods  are  private  property  the 
necessity  of  earning  a  livelihood  is  a  powerful  and  ever¬ 
present  incentive  for  the  poorer  members  of  the  com- 
munitv.  „  The  need. jof  subsistence  and  of  an  increase  of 
physical  comfort  may  for  a  time  be  the  dominant  motive 
of  acquisition  for  those  classes  who  are  habitually 
employed  at  manual  labour,  whose  subsistence  is  on 
a  precarious  footing,  who  possess  little  and  ordinarily 
accumulate  little  ;  but  it  will  appear  in  the  course  of 
the  discussion  that  even  in  the  case  of  these  impecuni¬ 
ous  classes  the  predominance  of  the  motive  of  physical 
want  is  not  so  decided  as  has  sometimes  been  assumed. 
On  the  other  hand,  so  far  as  regards  those  members 
and  classes  of  the  community  who  are  chiefly  concerned 
in  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  the  incentive  of  subsist¬ 
ence  or  of  physical  comfort  never  plays  a  considerable 
part.  Ownership  began  and  grew  into  a  human  insti¬ 
tution  on  grounds  unrelated  to  the  subsistence  minimum. 
The  dominant  incentive  was  from  the  outset  the  invidi¬ 


ous' distinction  attaching  to  wealth,  and,  save  tempora¬ 
rily  and  by  exception,  no  other  motive  has  usurped  the 
primacy  at  any  later  stage  of  the  development. 


Pecuniary  Emulation 


27 


i 


f 


1 


Property  set  out  with  being  booty  held  as  trophies 
of  the  successful  raid.  So  long  as  the  group  had  de¬ 
parted  but  little  from  the  primitive  communal  organi¬ 
sation,  and  so  long  as  it  still  stood  in  close  contact 
with  other  hostile  groups,  the  utility  of  things  or  per¬ 
sons  owned  lay  chiefly  in  an  invidious  comparison 
between  their  possessor  and  the  enemy  from  whom 
they  were  taken.  The  habit  of  distinguishing  between 
the  interests  of  the  individual  and  those  of  the  group 
to  which  he  belongs  is  apparently  a  later  growth. 
Invidious,  comparison  between  the  possessor  of  the 
honorific  booty  and  his  less  successful  neighbours  within 
the  group  was  no  doubt  present  early  as  an  element 
of  the  utility  of  the  things  possessed,  though  this  was 
not  at  the  outset  the  chief  element  of  their  value.  The 
man’s  prowess  was  still  primarily  the  group’s  prowess, 
and  the  possessor  of  the  booty  felt  himself  to  be  pri¬ 
marily  the  keeper  of  the  honour  of  his  group.  This 
appreciation  of  exploit  from  the  communal  point  of 
view  is  met  with  also  at  later  stages  of  social  growth, 


especially  as  regards  the  laurels  of  war. 

But  so  soon  as  the  custom  of  individual  ownership 
begins  to  gain  consistency,  the  point  of  view  taken  in 
making  the  invidious  comparison  on  which  private 
property  rests  will  begin  to  change.  Indeed,  the  one 
'  change  is  but  the  reflex  of  the  other.  The  initial  phase 
of  ownership,  the  phase  of  acquisition  by  naive  seizure 
and  conversion,  begins  to  pass  into  the  subsequent  stage 
of  an  incipient  organisation  of  industry  on  the  basis 
of  private  p  r  0  pert  y^m  slaves) ;  the  horde  develops 
j  intb^arme^e-o^fess-^elT^trfficing  industrial  community ; 


c  u  cJ 


2  8 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


possessions  then  come  to  be  valued  not  so  much  as 
evidence  of  successful  foray,  but  rather  as  evidence  of 
the  prepotence  of  the  possessor  of  these  goods  over 
other  individuals  within  the  community.  The  invidious 
comparison  now  becomes  primarily  a  comparison  of 
the  owner  with  the  other  members  of  the  group. 
Property  is  still  of  the  nature  of  trophy,  but,  with  the 
cultural  advance,  it  becomes  more  and  more  a  trophy 
of  successes  scored  in  the  game  of  ownership  carried 
on  between  the  members  of  the  group  under  the  quasi- 
peaceable  methods  of  nomadic  life. 

Gradually,  as  industrial  activity  further  displaces 
predatory  activity  in  the  community’s  everyday  life 
and  in  men’s  habits  of  thought,  accumulated  property 
more  and  more  replaces  trophies  of  predatory  exploit  as 
i  the  conventional  exponent  of  prepotence  and  success. 
With  the  growth  of  settled  industry,  therefore,  the  pos¬ 
session  of  wealth  gains  in  relative  importance  and  effec¬ 
tiveness  as  a  customary  basis  of  repute  and  esteem. 
Not  that  esteem  ceases  to  be  awarded  on  the  basis  of 
other,  more  direct  evidence  of  prowess ;  not  that  suc¬ 
cessful  predatory  aggression  or  warlike  exploit  ceases 
to  call  out  the  approval  and  admiration  of  the  crowd,  or 
to  stir  the  envy  of  the  less  successful  competitors  ;  but 
the  opportunities  for  gaining  distinction '  by  means  of 
this  direct  manifestation  of  superior  force  grow  less 
,  available  both  in  scope  and  frequency.  At  the  same 
time  opportunities  for  industrial  aggression,  and  for  the 
accumulation  of  property  by  the  quasi-peaceable  methods 
of  nomadic  industry,  increase  in  scope  and  availability. 
And  it  is  even  more  to  the  point  that  property  now 


Pecuniary  Emulation 


29 


becomes  the  most  easily  recognised  evidence  of  a  repu¬ 
table  degree  of  success  as  distinguished  from  heroic  or 
signal  achievement.  It  therefore  becomes  the  conven¬ 
tional  basis  of  esteem.  Its  possession  in  some  amount 
becomes  necessary  in  order  to  any  reputable  standing 
in  the  community.  It  becomes  indispensable  to  accu¬ 
mulate,  to  acquire  property,  in  order  to  retain  one’s 
good  name.  When  accumulated  goods  have  in  this  way 
once  become  the  accepted  badge  of  efficiency,  the  pos¬ 
session  of  wealth  presently  assumes  the  character  of  an 
independent  and  definitive  basis  of  esteem.  The  pos¬ 
session  of  goods,  whether  acquired  aggressively  by  one’s 
own  exertion  or  passively  by  transmission  through  in¬ 
heritance  from  others,  becomes  a  conventional  basis  of 
reputability.  The  possession  of  wealth,  which  was  at 
the  outset  valued  simply  as  an  evidence  of  efficiency, 
becomes,  in  popular  apprehension,  itself  a  meritorious 
fact.  * Wealth  is  now  itself  intrinsically  honourable  and 
confers  honour  on  its  possessor.  By  a  further  refine¬ 
ment,  wealth  acquired  passively  by  transmission  from 
ancestors  or  other  antecedents  presently  becomes  even 
more  honorific  than  wealth  acquired  by  the  possessor’s 
own  effort;  but  this  distinction  belongs  at  a  later  stage 
in  the  evolution  of  the  pecuniary  culture  and  will  be 
spoken  of  in  its  place. 

Prowess  and  exploit  may  still  remain  the  basis  of 
award  of  the  highest  popular  esteem,  although  the 
possession  of  wealth  has  become  the  basis  of  common¬ 
place  reputability  and  of  a  blameless  social  standing. 
Xhe  predatory  instinct  and  the  consequent  approbation 
of  predatory  efficiency  are  deeply  ingrained  in  the  habits 


30  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

of  thought  of  those  peoples  who  have  passed  under  the 
discipline  of  a  protracted  predatory  culture.  According 
to  popular  award,  the  highest  honours  within  human 
reach  may,  even  yet,  be  those  gained  by  an  unfolding 
of  extraordinary  predatory  efficiency  in  war,  or  by  a 
quasi-predatory  efficiency  in  statecraft ;  but  for  the 
purposes  of  a  commonplace  decent  standing  in  the 
community  these  means  of  repute  have  been  replaced 
by  the  acquisition  and  accumulation  of  goods.  In 
order  to  stand  well  in  the  eyes  of  the  community,  it  is 
necessary  to  come  up  to  a  certain,  somewhat  indefinite, 
conventional  standard  of  wealth  ;  just  as  in  the  earlier 
predatory  stage  it  is  necessary  for  the  barbarian  man  to 
come  up  to  the  tribe’s  standard  of  physical  endurance, 
cunning  and  skill  at  arms.  A  certain  standard  of  wealth 
in  the  one  case,  and  of  prowess  in  the  other,  is  a  neces¬ 
sary  condition  of  reputability,  and  anything  in  excess  of 
this  normal  amount  is  meritorious. 

Those  members  of  the  community  who  fall  short  of 
this,  somewhat  indefinite,  normal  degree  of  prowess  or 
of  property  suffer  in  the  esteem  of  their  fellow-men  ; 
and  consequently  they  suffer  also  in  their  own  esteem, 
since  the  usual  basis  of  self-respect  is  the  respect  ac¬ 
corded  by  one’s  neighbours.  Only  individuals  with  an 
aberrant  temperament  can  in  the  long  run  retain  their 
self-esteem  in  the  face  of  the  disesteem  of  their  fellows. 
Apparent  exceptions  to  the  rule  are  met  with,  especially 
among  people  with  strong  religious  convictions.  But 
these  apparent  exceptions  are  scarcely  real  exceptions, 
since  such  persons  commonly  fall  back  on  the  putative 
approbation  of  some  supernatural  witness  of  their  deeds. 


Pecuniary  Emulation 


31 


So  soon  as  the  possession  of  property  becomes  the 
basis  of  popular  esteem,  therefore,  it  becomes  also  a 
requisite  to  that  complacency  which  we  call  self-respect. 
In  any  community  where  goods  are  held  in  severalty  it  is 
necessary,  in  order  to  his  own  peace  of  mind,  that  an 
individual  should  possess  as  large  a  portion  of  goods  as 
others  with  whom  he  is  accustomed  to  class  himself ; 
and  it  is  extremely  gratifying  to  possess  something  more 
than  others.  But  as  fast  as  a  person  makes  new  acqui¬ 
sitions,  and  becomes  accustomed  to  the  resulting  new 
standard  of  wealth,  the  new  standard  forthwith  ceases 
to  afford  appreciably  greater  satisfaction  than  the  earlier 
standard  did.  The  tendency  in  any  case  is  constantly 
to  make  the  present  pecuniary  standard  the  point  of 
departure  for  a  fresh  increase  of  wealth;  and  this  in 
turn  gives  rise  to  a  new  standard  of  sufficiency  and  a 
new  pecuniary  classification  of  one’s  self  as  compared 
with  one’s  neighbours.  So  far  as  concerns  the  present 
question,  the  end  sought  by  accumulation  is  to  rank 
high  in  comparison  with  the  rest  of  the  community  in 
point  of  pecuniary  strength.  So  long  as  the  comparison 
is  distinctly  unfavourable  to  himself,  the  normal,  averaged 
individual  will  live  in  chronic  dissatisfaction  with  his  • 
present  lot ;  and  when  he  has  reached  what  may  be 
called  the  normal  pecuniary  standard  of  the  communit 


or  of  his  class  in  the  community,  this  chronic  dissatis¬ 
faction  will  give  place  to  a  restless  straining  to  place 
a  wider  and  ever-widening  pecuniary  interval  between 
himself  and  this  average  standard.  The  invidious  com¬ 
parison  can  never  become  so  favourable  to  the  individual 
making  it  that  he  would  not  gladly  rate  himself  still 


32 


The  Theory  of  the  Leis7Lre  Class 


higher  relatively  to  his  competitors  in  the  struggle  for 
pecuniary  reputability. 

In  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  desire  for  wealth  can 
scarcely  be  satiated  in  any  individual  instance,  and  evi¬ 
dently  a  satiation  of  the  average  or  general  desire  for 
wealth  is  out  of  the  question.  However  widely,  or 
equally,  or  “fairly,”  it  may  be  distributed,  no  general 
increase  of  the  community’s  wealth  can  make  any  ap¬ 
proach  to  satiating  this  need,  the  ground  of  which  is 
the  desire  of  every  one  to  excel  every  one  else  in  the 
accumulation  of  goods.  If,  as  is  sometimes  assumed, 
the  incentive  to  accumulation  were  the  want  of  sub¬ 
sistence  or  of  physical  comfort,  then  the  aggregate 
economic  wants  of  a  community  might  conceivably  be 
satisfied  at  some  point  in  the  advance  of  industrial 
efficiency;  but  since  the  struggle  is  substantially  a  race 
for  reputability  on  the  basis  of  an  invidious  comparison, 
no  approach  to  a  definitive  attainment  is  possible. 

What  has  just  been  said  must  not  be  taken  to  mean 
that  there  are  no  other  incentives  to  acquisition  and 
accumulation  than  this  desire  to  excel  in  pecuniary 
standing  and  so  gam  -the  esteem  and  envy  of  one’s 
fellow-men.  The  desire  for  added  comfort  and  security 
from  want  is  present  as  a  motive  at  every  stage  of 
the  process  of  accumulation  in  a  modern  industrial  com¬ 
munity  ;  although  the  standard  of  sufficiency  in  these 
respects  is  in  turn  greatly  affected  by  the  habit  of 
pecuniary  emulation.  To  a  great  extent  this  emulation 
shapes  the  methods  and  selects  the  objects  of  expendi¬ 
ture  for  personal  comfort  and  decent  livelihood. 

Besides  this,  the  power  conferred  by  wealth  also 


Pecuniary  Emulation 


33 


% 

affords  a  motive  to  accumulation.  That  propensity  for 
purposeful  activity  and  that  repugnance  to  all  futility  of 
effort  which  belong*  to  man  by  virtue  of  his  character  as 
an  agent  do  not  desert  him  when  he  emerges  from  the 
naive  communal  culture  where  the  dominant  note  of  life 
is  the  unanalysed  and  undifferentiated  solidarity  of  the 
individual  with  the  group  with  which  his  life  is  bound 
up.  When  he  enters  upon  the  predatory  stage,  where 
self-seeking*  in  the  narrower  sense  becomes  the  dominant 
note,  this  propensity  goes  with  him  still,  as  the  per¬ 
vasive  trait  that  shapes  his  scheme  of  life.  The  pro¬ 
pensity  for  achievement  and  the  repugnance  to  futility 
remain  the  underlying*  economic  motive.  The  pro¬ 
pensity  changes  only  in  the  form  of  its  expression  and 
in  the  proximate  objects  to  which  it  directs  the  man’s 
activity.  Under  the  regime  of  individual  ownership 
the  most  available  means  of  visibly  achieving  a  purpose 
is  that  afforded  by  the  acquisition  and  accumulation 
of  goods ;  and  as  the  self-regarding  antithesis  between 
man  and  man  reaches  fuller  consciousness,  the  pro¬ 
pensity  for  achievement  —  the  instinct  of  workman¬ 
ship  —  tends  more  and  more  to  shape  itself  into  a 
straining  to  excel  others  in  pecuniary  achievement. 
Relative  success,  tested  by  an  invidious  pecuniary  com¬ 
parison  with  other  men,  becomes  the  conventional  end 
of  action.  The  currently  accepted  legitimate  end  of 
effort  becomes  the  achievement  of  a  favourable  com¬ 
parison  with  other  men ;  and  therefore  the  repugnance 
to  futility  to  a  good  extent  coalesces  with  the  incentive 
of  emulation.  It  acts  to  accentuate  the  struggle  for 
pecuniary  reputability  by  visiting  with  a  sharper  dis- 


D 


34 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


approval  all  shortcoming  and  all  evidence  of  short- 
t  coming  in  point  of  pecuniary  success.  Purposeful  effort\ 
comes  to  mean,  primarily,  effort  directed  to  or  resulting' 
in  a  more  creditable  showing  of  accumulated  wealthy 
Among  the  motives  which  lead  men  to  accumulate 
wealth,  the  primacy,  both  in  scope  and  intensity,  there¬ 
fore,  continues  to  belong  to  this  motive  of  pecuniary 
emulation. 

In  making  use  of  the  term  “invidious,”  it  may  per¬ 
haps  be  unnecessary  to  remark,  there  is  no  intention  to 
extol  or  depreciate,  or  to  commend  or  deplore  any  of 
the  phenomena  which  the  word  is  used  to  characterise. 
The  term  is  used  in  a  technical  sense  as  describing  a 
comparison  of  persons  with  a  view  to  rating  and  grading 
them  in  respect  of  relative  worth  or  value  —  in  Ain 
aesthetic  or  moral  sense  —  and  so  awarding  and  defin- 
ing  the  relative  degrees  of  complacency  with  which 
they  may  legitimately  be  contemplated  by  themselves 
?  and  by  others.  An  invidious -comparison  is  a  process 
,  of  valuation  of  persons  in  respect  of  worth. 


1 


CHAPTER  III 


Conspicuous  Leisure 

If  its  working  were  not  disturbed  by  other  economic 
forces  or  other  features  of  the  emulative  process,  the 
immediate  effect  of  such  a  pecuniary  struggle  as  has 
just  been  described  in  outline  would  be  to  make  men 
industrious  and  frugal.  This  result  actually  follows,  in 
some  measure,  so  far  as  regards  the  lower  classes, 

whose  ordinary  means  of  acquiring  goods  is  productive 
labour.  This  is  more  especially  true  of  the  labouring 
classes  in  a  sedentary  community  which  is  at  aq 
agricultural  stage  of  industry,  in  which  there  js 
considerable  subdivision  of  property,  and  whose  Jawi 
and  customs  secure  to  these  classes  a  more  or  less 
definite  .share  of  Ihu  pEQxLiKi_Qf  lhuir_iiidiLS t ry .  These! 
lower  classes  can  in  any  case  not  avoid  labour,  and  the 
imputation  of  labour  is  therefore  not  greatly  derogatory 
to  them,  at  least  not  within  their  class.  Rather,  since 
labour  is  their  recognised  and  accepted  mode  of  life, 
they  take  some  emulative  pride  in  a  reputation  for 
efficiency  in  their  work,  this  being  often  the  only  line 


of  emulation  that  is  open  to  them.  For  those  for  whom 
acquisition  and  emulation  is  possible  only  within  the 
field  of  productive  efficiency  and  thrift,  the  struggle 
for  pecuniary  reputability  jwiU  in  some  measure  .work 

35 


L 


u 


,  C 


36 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


out  in  an  increase  of  _  diligence  and  parsimony.  But 
certain  secondary  features  of  the  emulative  process, 
yet  to  be  spoken  of,  come  in  to  very  materially  circum¬ 
scribe  and  modify  emulation  in  these  directions  among 

the  pecuniarily  inferior  classes  as  well  as  among  the 

0 

superior  class. 

But  it  is  otherwise  with  the  superior  pecuniary  class, 
with  which  we  are  here  immediately  concerned.  For 
this  class  also  the  incentive  to  diligence  and  thrift  is 
not  absent ;  but  its  action  is  so  greatly  qualified  by  the 
secondary  demands  of  pecuniary  emulation,  that  any 
..inclination  in  this  direction  is  practically  overborne  and 
any^  incentive  to  diligence  tends  to  be  of  no  effect. 
The  most  imperative  of  these  secondary  demands  of 
emulation,  as  well  as  the  one  of  widest  scope,  is  the 
requirement  of  abstention  from  productive  work.  This 
is  true  in  an  especial  degree  for  the  barbarian  stage 
of  culture.  During  the  predatory  culture  labour  comes 
to  be  associated  in  men’s  habits  of  thought  with  weak¬ 
ness  and  subjection  to  a  master.  It  is  therefore  a  mark 
of  inferiority,  and  therefore  comes  to  be  accounted  un¬ 
worthy  of  man  in  his  best  estate.  By  virtue  of  this 
tradition  labour  is  felt  to  be  debasing,  and  this  tradition 
has  never  died  out.  On  the  contrary,  with  the  advance 
of  social  differentiation  it  has  acquired  the  axiomatic 
rce  due  to  ancient  and  unquestioned  prescription. 

In  order  to  gain  and  to  hold  the  esteem  of  men  it  is 
not  sufficient  merely  to  possess  wealth  or  power.  The 
wealth  or  power  must  be  put  in  evidence,  for  esteem 
x\  is  awarded  only  on  evidence.  And  not  only  does  the 
•^evidence  of  wealth  serve  to  impress  one’s  importance 


Conspicuous  Leisure 


37 


on  others  and  to  keep  their  sense  of  his  importance 

v  _ alive  and  alert,  but  it  is  of  scarcely  less  use  in  building 

up.  and  preserving  one’s  self-complacency.  In  all  but 
the  lowest  stages  of  culture  the  normally  constituted 
man  is  comforted  and  upheld  in  his  self-respect  by 
“decent  surroundings”  and  by  exemption  from  “menial 
offices.”  Enforced  departure  from  his  habitual  stand¬ 
ard  of  decency,  either  in  the  paraphernalia  of  life  or  in 
the  kind  and  amount  of  his  everyday  activity,  is  felt 
to  be  a  slight  upon  his  human  dignity,  even  apart  from  all 
conscious  consideration  of  the  approval  or  disapproval 
of  his  fellows. 

The  archaic,  theoretical  distinction  between  the  base 
and  the  honourable  in  the  manner  of  a  man’s  life  retains 
very  much  of  its  ancient  force  even  to-day.  So  much 
so  that  there  are  few  of  the  better  class  who  are  not 
possessed  of  an  instinctive  repugnance  for  the  vulgar 
forms  of  labour.  We  have  a  realising  sense  of  ceremo¬ 
nial  uncleanness  attaching  in  an  especial  degree  to  the 
occupations  which  are  associated  in  our  habits  of 
thought  with  menial  service.  It  is  felt  by  all  persons 
of  refined  taste  that  a  spiritual  contamination  is  insep¬ 
arable  from  certain  offices  that  are  conventionally  re¬ 
quired  of  servants.  Vulgar  surroundings,  mean  (that 
is  to  say,  inexpensive)  habitations,  and  vulgarly  pro¬ 
ductive  occupations  are  unhesitatingly  condemned  and 
avoided.  They  are  incompatible  with  life  on  a  satis¬ 
factory  spiritual  plane —  with  “high  thinking.”  From 
the  days  of  the  Greek  philosophers  to  the  present,  a 
degree  of  leisure  and  of  exemption  from  contact  with 
such  industrial  processes  as  serve  the  immediate  every- 


38 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


\ 


clay  purposes  of  human  life  has  ever  been  recognised  by 
thoughtful  men  as  a  prerequisite  to  a  worthy  or  beauti¬ 
ful,  or  even  a  blameless,  human  life.  In  itself  and  in  its 
consequences  the  life  of  leisure  is  beautiful  and  enno¬ 
bling  in  all  civilised  men’s  eyes. 

This  direct,  subjective  value  of  leisure  and  of  other 
evidences  of  wealth  is  no  doubt  in  great  part  secondary 
and  derivative.  ”  It  is  in  part  a  reflex  of  the  -utility 
of  leisure  as  a  means  of  gaining  the  respect  of  othqrs, 
and  in  part  it  is  the  result  of  a  mental  substitution. 
The  performance  of  labour  has  been  accepted  as  a  con¬ 
ventional  evidence  of  inferior  force ;  therefore  it  comes 
itself,  by  a  mental  short-cut,  to  be  regarded  as  intrin¬ 
sically  base.  i  . 

During  the  predatory  stage  proper,  and ‘especially 
during  the  earlier  stages  of  the  quasi-peaceable  develop¬ 
ment  of  industry  that  follows  the  predatory  stage,  a 
life  of  leisure  is  the  readiest  and  most  conclusive  evi¬ 
dence  of  pecuniary  strength,  and  therefore  of  superior 
force ;  provided  always  that  the  gentleman  of  leisure 
can  live  in  manifest  ease  and  comfort.  At  this  stage 
wealth  consists  chiefly  of  slaves,  and  the  benefits  accru¬ 
ing  from  the  possession  of  riches  and  power  take  the 
form  chiefly  of  personal  service  and  the  immediate 
products  of  personal  service.  Conspicuous  abstention 
from  labour  therefore  becomes  the  conventional  mark 
of  superior  pecuniary  achievement  and  the  conventional 
index  of  reputability ;  and  conversely,  since  application 
to  productive  labour  is  a  mark  of  poverty  and  subjection, 
it  becomes  inconsistent  with  a  reputable  standing  in  the 
community.  Habits  of  industry  and  thrift,  therefore, 


Conspicuous  Leisure 


39 


■  are  not  uniformly  furthered  by  a  prevailing  pecuniary 
emulation.  On  the  contrary,  this  kind  of  emulation 
indirectly  discountenances  participation  in  productive 

i  labour.  Labour  would  unavoidably  become  dishonoura- 

ble,  as  being  an  evidence  of  poverty,  even  if  it  were  not 
already  accounted  indecorous  under  the  ancient  trad i- 
t  tion  handed  down  from  an  earlier  cultural  stage.  The 
ancient  tradition  of  the  predatory  culture  is  that  pro¬ 
ductive  effort  is  to  be  shunned  as  being  unworthy  of 
able-bodied  men,  and  this  tradition  is  reinforced  rather 
than  set  aside  in  the  passage  from  the  predatory  to  the 
quasi-peaceable  manner  of  life. 

Even  if  the  institution  of  a  leisure  class  had  not  come 
in  with  the  first  emergence  of  individual  ownership,  by 
force  of  the  dishonour  attaching  to  productive  employ¬ 
ment,  it  would  in  any  case  have  come  in  as  one  of  the 
early  consequences  of  ownership.  And  it  is  to  be  re¬ 
marked  that  while  the  leisure  class  existed  in  theory  from 
the  beginning  of  predatory  culture,  the  institution  takes 
on  a  new  and  fuller  meaning  with  the  transition  from 
the  predatory  to  the  next  succeeding  pecuniary  staeca  of 
\  culture.  It  is  from  this  time  forth  a  “leisure  class” 
in  fact  as  well  as  in  theory.  From  this  point  dates 

the  institution  of  the  leisure  class  in  its  consummate 
|  \ 
i  form. 

f  During  the  predatory  stage  proper  the  distinction 
between  the  leisure  and  the  labouring  class  is  in  some 
degree  a  ceremonial  distinction  only.  The  able-bodied- 
m e njealouslv  stand  aloof  from  whatever  is.  in  their  ap - 
prehension,  menial  drudgery  ;  but  their  activity  in  fact 
contributes  appreciably  to  the  sustenance  of  the  group. 


40 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


.  The  subsequent  stage  of  quasi-peaceable  industry  is 
usually  characterised  by  an  established  chattel  slavery, 
herds  of  cattle,  and  a  servile  class  of  herdsmen  and 
shepherds  ;  industry  has  advanced  so  far  that  the  com¬ 
munity  is  no  longer  dependent  for  its  livelihood  on  the 
chase  or  on  any  other  form  of  activity  that  can  fairly  be 
classed  as  exploit.  From  this  point  on,  the  characfer- 
istic  feature  of  leisure-class  life  is  a  conspicuous  exemp- 
_ _ tion  from  all  useful  emplovm e n t . 

The  normal  and  characteristic  occupations  of  the 
class  in  this  mature  phase  of  its  life  history  are  in 
form  very  much  the  same  as  in  its  earlier  days.  These 
occupations  are  government,  war,  sports,  and  devout 
observances.  Persons  unduly  given  to  difficult  theo¬ 
retical  niceties  may  hold  that  these  occupations  are 
still  incidentally  and  indirectly  “  productive  ”  ;  but  it 
is  to  be  noted  as  decisive  of  the  question  in  hand 
that  the  ordinary  and  ostensible  motive  of  the  leisure 
class  in  engaging  in  these  occupations  is  assuredly  not 
z  an  increase  of  wealth  by  productive  effort.  At  this  as 
at  any  other  cultural  stage,  government  and  war  are,  at 
least  in  part,  carried  on  for  the  pecuniary  gain  of  those 
who  engage  in  them  ;  but  it  is  gain  obtained  by  the 
honourable  method  of  seizure  and  conversion.  These 
occupations  are  of  the  nature  of  predatory,  not  of  pro¬ 
ductive,  employment.  Something  similar  may  be  said 
of  the  chase,  but  with  a  difference.  As  the  community 
passes  out  of  the  hunting  stage  proper,  hunting  gradu¬ 
ally  becomes  differentiated  into  two  distinct  employ¬ 
ments.  On  the  one  hand  it  is  a  trade,  carried  on  chiefly 
for  gain  ;  and  from  this  the  element  of  exploit  is  virtu- 


Conspicuous  Leisure 


4i 


ally  absent,  or  it  is  at  any  rate  not  present  in  a  suffi¬ 
cient  degree  to  clear  the  pursuit  of  the  imputation  of 
gainful  industry.  On  the  other  hand,  the  chase  is  also 
a  sport  —  an  exercise  of  the  predatory  impulse  simply. 
As  such  it  does  not  afford  any  appreciable  pecuniary 
incentive,  but  it  contains  a  more  or  less  obvious  element 
of  exploit.  It  is  this  latter  development  of  the  chase  — 
purged  of  all  imputation  of  handicraft  —  that  alone  is 
meritorious  and  fairly  belongs  in  the  scheme  of  life  of 
the  developed  leisure  class. 

Abstention  from  labour  is  not  only  a  honorific  or 
meritorious  act,  but  it  presently  comes  to  be  a  requisite 
of  decency.  The  insistence  on  property  as  the  basis  of 
reputability  is  very  nai've  and  very  imperious  during  the 
early  stages  of  the  accumulation  of  wealth.  Abstention 
from  labour  is  the  conventional  evidence  of  wealth  and 
is  therefore  the  conventional  mark  of  social  standing ; 
and  this  insistence  on  the  meritoriousness  of  wealth 
leads  to  a  more  strenuous  insistence  on  leisure.  Nota 
notce  est  nota  rei  ipsius.  According  to  well-established 
laws  of  human  nature,  prescription  presently  seizes  upon 
this  conventional  evidence  of  wealth  and  fixes  it  in  men’s 
habits  of  thought  as  something  that  is  in  itself  sub¬ 
stantially  meritorious  and  ennobling;  while  productive 
labour  at  the  same  time  and  by  a  like  process  becomes 
in  a  double  sense  intrinsically  unworthy.  Prescription 
ends  by  making  labour  not  only  disreputable  in  the  eyes 
of  the  community,  but  morally  impossible  to  the  noble, 
freeborn  man,  and  incompatible  with  a  worthy  life. 

This  tabu  on  labour  has  a  further  consequence  in  the 
industrial  differentiation  of  classes.  As  the  population 


42 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


increases  in  density  and  the  predatory  group  grows  into 
a  settled  industrial  community,  the  constituted  authori¬ 
ties  and  the  customs  governing  ownership  gain  in  scope 
and  consistency.  It  then  presently  becomes  impracti¬ 
cable  to  accumulate  wealth  by  simple  seizure,  and,  in 
logical  consistency,  acquisition  by  industry  is  equally 
impossible  for  high-minded  and  impecunious  men. 
The  alternative  open  to  them  is  beggary  or  starvation. 
Wherever  the  canon  of  conspicuous  leisure  has  a  chance 
undisturbed  to  work  out  its  tendency,  there  will  there¬ 
fore  emerge  a  secondary,  and  in  a  sense  spurious,  leisure 
class  — abjectly  poor  and  living  a  precarious  life  of  want 
(  and  discomfort,  but  morally  unable  to  stoop  to  gainful 
pursuits.  The  decayed  gentleman  and  the  lady  who 
has  seen  better  days  are  by  no  means  unfamiliar  phe¬ 
nomena  even  now.  This  pervading  sense  of  the  indig¬ 
nity  of  the  slightest  manual  labour  is  familiar  to  all 
civilised  peoples,  as  well  as  to  peoples  of  a  less  advanced 
f  pecuniary  culture.  In  persons  of  delicate  sensibility, 
who  have  long  been  habituated  to  gentle  manners,  the 
sense  of  the  shamefulness  of  manual  labour  may  become 
so  strong  that,  at  a  critical  juncture,  it  will  even  set 
/  aside  the  instinct  of  self-preservation.  So,  for  in¬ 
stance,  we  are  told  of  certain  Polynesian  chiefs,  who, 
under  the  stress  of  good  form,  preferred  to  starve 
rather  than  carry  their  food  to  their  mouths  with 
their  own  hands.  It  is  true,  this  conduct  may  have 
been  due,  at  least  in  part,  to  an  excessive  sanctity  or 
tabu  attaching  to  the  chief’s  person.  The  tabu  would 
have  been  communicated  by  the  contact  of  his  hands, 
and  so  would  have  made  anything  touched  by  him  unfit 


Co?ispicuous  Leisure 


43 


for  human  food.  But  the  tabu  is  itself  a  derivative  of 
the  unworthiness  or  moral  incompatibility  of  labour  ;  so 
that  even  when  construed  in  this  sense  the  conduct  of 
the  Polynesian  chiefs  is  truer  to  the  canon  of  honorific 
leisure  than  would  at  first  appear.  A  better  illustration, 
or  at  least  a  more  unmistakable  one,  is  afforded  by  a 
certain  king  of  France,  who  is  said  to  have  lost  his  life 
through  an  excess  of  moral  stamina  in  the  observance 
of  good  form.  In  the  absence  of  the  functionary  whose 
office  it  was  to  shift  his  master’s  seat,  the  king  sat  un¬ 
complaining  before  the  fire  and  suffered  his  royal 
person  to  be  toasted  beyond  recovery.  But  in  so  doing 
he  saved  his  Most  Christian  Majesty  from  menial  con¬ 
tamination. 

Summum  crede  nefas  animam  praeferre.  pudori, 

Et  propter  vitam  vivendi  perdere  causas. 

* 

It  has  already  been  remarked  that  the  term  “leisure,” 
as  here  used,  does  not  connote  indolence  or  quiescence. 
What  it  connotes  is  non-productive  consumption  of  time. 
Time  is  consumed  non-productively  (i)  from  a  sense  of 
the  unworthiness  of  productive  work,  and  (2)  as  an 
evidence  of  pecuniary  ability  to  afford  a  life  of  idleness. 
But  the  whole  of  the  life  of  the  gentlem^rT5f“leisure  is 
not  spent  before  the  eyes  of  the  ^spectators  who  are  to 
be  impressed  with  that  spectacle\of^horrOfific  leisure 
which  in  the  ideal  scheme  makes  up  his  life.  For  some 
part  of  the  time  his  life  is  perforce  withdrawn  from  the 
public  eye,  and  of  this  portion  which  is  spent  in  private 
the  gentleman  of  leisure  should,  for  the  sake  of  his  good 
name,  be  able  to  give  a  convincing  account.  He  should 


44  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

find  some  means  of  putting  in  evidence  the  leisure  that 
is  not  spent  in  the  sight  of  the  spectators.  This  can 
be  done  only  indirectly,  through  the  exhibition  of  some 
tangible,  lasting  results  of  the  leisure  so  spent  —  in  a 
manner  analogous  to  the  familiar  exhibition  of  tangi¬ 
ble,  lasting  products  of  the  labour  performed  for  the 
gentleman  of  leisure  by  handicraftsmen  and  servants 
in  his  employ. 

The  lasting  evidence  of  productive  labour  is  its  mate¬ 
rial  product  —  commonly  some  article  of  consumption. 
In  the  case  of  exploit  it  is  similarly  possible  and  usual 
to  procure  some  tangible  result  that  may  serve  for 
exhibition  in  the  way  of  trophy  or  booty.  At  a  later 
phase  of  the  development  it  is  customary  to  assume 
some  badge  or  insignia  of  honour  that  will  serve  as  a 
conventionally  accepted  mark  of  exploit,  and  which  at 
the  same  time  indicates  the  quantity  or  degree  of  ex¬ 
ploit  of  which  it  is  the  symbol.  As  the  population 
increases  in  density,  and  as  human  relations  grow  more 
complex  and  numerous,  all  the  details  of  life  undergo  a 
process  of  elaboration  and  selection  ;  and  in  this  process 
of  elaboration  the  use  of  trophies  develops  into  a  sys¬ 
tem  of  rank,  titles,  degrees  and  insignia,  typical  ex¬ 
amples  of  which  are  heraldic  devices,  medals,  and 
honorary  decorations. 

As  seen  from  the  economic  point  of  view,  leisure, 
considered  as  an  employment,  is  closely  allied  in  kind 
with  the  life  of  exploit ;  and  the  achievements  which 
characterise  a  life  of  leisure,  and  which  remain  as  its 
decorous  criteria,  have  much  in  common  with  the 
trophies  of  exploit.  But  leisure  in  the  narrower  sense, 


Conspicuous  Leisure 


45 


as  distinct  from  exploit  and  from  any  ostensibly  produc¬ 
tive  employment  of  effort  on  objects  which  are  of  no 
intrinsic  use,  does  not  commonly  leave  a  material  prod¬ 
uct.  The  criteria  of  a  past  performance  of  leisure 
therefore  commonly  take  the  form  of  “  immaterial  ” 


.Snrh  immaterial  evidences  of  past  leisure 

quasi-artistic  accomplishments 


goods 

are 


and  a  knowfedge^of-  processea„and  incidents  which  do 
not  conduce  directly  to  the  furtherance  of  human  life. 
So,  for  instance,  in  our  time  there  is  the  knowledge  of 
the  dead  languages  and  the  occult  sciences  ;  of  correct 
spelling ;  of  syntax  and  prosody  ;  of  the  various  forms 
of  domestic  music  and  other  household  art ;  of  the 
latest  proprieties  of  dress,  furniture,  and  equipage ;  of 
games,  sports,  and  fancy-bred  animals,  such  as  dogs  and 
race-horses.  In  all  these  branches  of  knowledge  the 
initial  motive  from  which  their  acquisition  proceeded 
at  the  outset,  and  through  which  they  first  came  into 
vogue,  may  have  been  something  quite  different  from 
the  wish  to  show  that  one’s  time  had  not  been  spent  in 
industrial  employment ;  but  unless  these  accomplish¬ 
ments  had  approved  themselves  as  serviceable  evidence 
of  an  unproductive  expenditure  of  time,  they  would  not 
have  survived  and  held  their  place  as  conventional 
accomplishments  of  the  leisure  class. 

These  accomplishments  may,  in  some  sense,  be  classed 
as  branches  of  learning.  Beside  and  beyond  these  there 
is  a  further  range  of  social  facts  which  shade  off  from 
the  region  of  learning  into  that  of  physical  habit  and 

dexterity,  buch  are  what  is  known  as  manners  and 
breeding,  polite  usage,  decorum,  and  formal  and  cere- 


I 


46  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

monial  observances  generally.  This  class  of  facts  are 
everPmore  immediately  and  obtrusively  presented  to 
the  observation,  and  they  are  therefore  more  widely 
and  more  imperatively  insisted  on  as  required  evidences 
of  a  reputable  degree  of  leisure.  It  is  worth  while  to 
remark  that  all  that  class  of  ceremonial  observances 
which  are  classed  under  the  general  head  of  manners 
hold  a  more  important  place  in  the  esteem  of  men  dur¬ 
ing  the  stage  of  culture  at  which  conspicuous  leisure 
has  the  greatest  vogue  as  a  mark  of  reputability,  than 
at  later  stages  of  the  cultural  development.  The  bar¬ 
barian  of  the  quasi-peaceable  stage  of  industry  is  notori¬ 
ously  a  more  high-bred  gentleman,  in  all  that  concerns 
decorum,  than  any  but  the  very  exquisite  among  the  men 
of  a  later  age.  Indeed,  it  is  well  known,  or  at  least  it 
is  currently  believed,  that  manners  have  progressively 
deteriorated  as  society  has  receded  from  the  patriarchal 
stage.  /-'Many  a  gentleman  of  the  old  school  has  been 
provoked  to  remark  regretfully  upon  the  under-bred 
manners  and  bearing  of  even  the  better  classes  in  the 
modern  industrial  communities  ;  and  the  decay  of  the 
ceremonial  code  —  or  as  it  is  otherwise  called  the  vul¬ 
garisation  of  life  —  among  the  industrial  classes  proper 
has  become  one  of  the  chief  enormities  of  latter-day 
civilisation  in  the  eyes  of  all  persons  of  delicate  sensi¬ 
bilities.  The  decay  which  the  code  has  suffered  at  the 
hands  of  a  busy  people  testifies  —  all  deprecation  apart 
—  to  the  fact  that  decorum  is  a  product  and  an  ex¬ 
ponent  of  leisure-class  life  and  thrives  in  full  measure 
only  under  a  regime  of  status. 

The  origin,  or  better  the  derivation,  of  manners  is, 


Conspicuous  Leisure 


47 


no  doubt,  to  be  sought  elsewhere  than  in  a  conscious 
effort  on  the  part  of  the  well-mannered  to  show  that 
much  time  has  been  spent  in  acquiring  them.  The 
proximate  end  of  innovation  and  elaboration  has  been 
the  higher  effectiveness  of  the  new  departure  in  point 
of  beauty  or  of  expressiveness.  In  great  part  the  cere¬ 
monial  code  of  decorous  usages  owes  its  beginning  and 
its  growth  to  the  desire  to  conciliate  or  to  show  good¬ 
will,  as  anthropologists  and  sociologists  are  in  the  habit 
of  assuming,  and  this  initial  motive  is  rarely  if  ever 
absent  from  the  conduct  of  well-mannered  persons  at 
any  stage  of  the  later  development.  Manners,  we  are 
told,  are  in  part  an  elaboration  of  gesture,  and  in  part 
they  are  symbolical  and  conventionalised  survivals  repre¬ 
senting  former  acts  of  dominance  or  of  personal  service 
or  of  personal  contact.  In  large  part  they  are  an  ex¬ 
pression  of  the  relation  of  status,  —  a  symbolic  panto¬ 
mime  of  mastery  on  the  one  hand  and  of  subservience 
on  the  other.  Wherever  at  the  present  time  the  pred¬ 
atory  habit  of  mind,  and  the  consequent  attitude  of 
mastery  and  of  subservience  gives  its  character  to  the 
accredited  scheme  of  life,  there  the  importance  of  all 
punctilios  of  conduct  is  extreme,  and  the  assiduity  with 
which  the  ceremonial  observance  of  rank  and  titles  is 
attended  to  approaches  closely  to  the  ideal  set  by  the 
barbarian  of  the  quasi-peaceable  nomadic  culture.  Some 
of  the  continental  countries  afford  good  illustrations  of 
this  spiritual  survival.  In  these  communities  the 
archaic  ideal  is  similarly  approached  as  regards  the 
esteem  accorded  to  manners  as  a  fact  of  intrinsic 
worth. 


48  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

Decorum  set  out  with  being  symbol  and  pantomime 
and  with  having  utility  only  as  an  exponent  of  the 
facts  and  qualities  symbolised ;  but  it  presently  suffered 
the  transmutation  which  commonly  passes  over  symboli¬ 
cal  facts  in  human  intercourse.  Manners  presently  came, 
in  popular  apprehension,  to  be  possessed  of  a  substantial 
utility  in  themselves  ;  they  acquired  a  sacramental  char¬ 
acter,  in  great  measure  independent  of  the  facts  which 
they  originally  prefigured.  Deviations  from  the  code 
of  decorum  have  become  intrinsically  odious  to  all  men, 
and  good  breeding  is,  in  everyday  apprehension,  not 
simply  an  adventitious  mark  of  human  excellence,  but 
an  integral  feature  of  the  worthy  human  soul.  There 
are  few  things  which  so  touch  us  with  instinctive  revul¬ 
sion  as  a  breech  of  decorum  ;  and  so  far  have  we  pro¬ 
gressed  in  the  direction  of  imputing  intrinsic  utility  to 
the  ceremonial  observances  of  etiquette  that  few  of  us, 
if  any,  can  dissociate  an  offence  against  etiquette  from 
a  sense  of  the  substantial  unworthiness  of  the  offender. 
A  breach  of  faith  may  be  condoned,  but  a  breach  of 
decorum  cannot.  “Manners  maketh  man.” 

None  the  less,  while  manners  have  this  intrinsic 
utility,  in  the  apprehension  of  the  performer  and  the 
beholder  alike,  this  sense  of  the  intrinsic  rightness  of 
decorum  is  only  the  proximate  ground  of  the  vogue  of 
manners  and  breeding.  Their  ulterior,  economic  ground 
is  to  be  sought  in  the  honorific  character  of  that  leisure 
or  non-productive  employment  of  time  and  effort  with¬ 
out  which  good  manners  are  not  acquired.  The  know¬ 
ledge  and  habit  of  good  form  come  only  by  long-con¬ 
tinued  use.  Refined  tastes,  manners,  and  habits  of  life 


Conspicuous  Leisure 


49 


are  a  useful  evidence  of  gentility,  because  good  breeding 
requires  time,  application,  and  expense,  and  can  there¬ 
fore  not  be  compassed  by  those  whose  time  and  energy 
are  taken  up  with  work.  A  knowledge  of  good  form  is 
prima  facie  evidence  that  that  portion  of  the  well-bred 
person’s  life  which  is  not  spent  under  the  observation 
'of— tbe-'spectator  has  been  worthily  spent  in  acquiring 
accomplishments  that  are  of  no  lucrative  effect.  In  the 
last  analysis  the  value  of  manners  lies  in  the  fact  that 
they  are  the  voucher  of  a  life  of  leisure.  Therefore, 
-xonv^-rselyy ~^trrce  leisure  is  the  conventional  means  of 
pecuniary  repute,  the  acquisition  of  some  proficiency  in 
decorum  is  incumbent  on  all  who  aspire  to  a  modicum 
of  pecuniary  decency. 

So  much  of  the  honourable  life  of  leisure  as  is  not 
spent  in  the  sight  of  spectators  can  serve  the  purposes 
of  reputability  only  in  so  far  as  it  leaves  a  tangible,  visi¬ 
ble  result  that  can  be  put  in  evidence  and  can  be  meas¬ 
ured  and  compared  with  products  of  the  same  class 
exhibited  by  competing  aspirants  for  repute.  Some 
such  effect,  in  the  way  of  leisurely  manners  and  carriage, 
etc.,  follows  from  simple  persistent  abstention  from 
work,  even  where  the  subject  does  not  take  thought  of 
the  matter  and  studiously  acquire  an  air  of  leisurely 
opulence  and  mastery.  Especially  does  it  seem  to  be 
true  that  a  life  of  leisure  in  this  way  persisted  in  through 
several  generations  will  leave  a  persistent,  ascertainable 
effect  in  the  conformation  of  the  person,  and  still  more 
in  his  habitual  bearing  and  demeanour.  But  all  the  sug¬ 
gestions  of  a  cumulative  life  of  leisure,  and  all  the  profi¬ 
ciency  in  decorum  that  comes  by  the  way  of  passive 


E 


50 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


habituation,  may  be  further  improved  upon  by  taking 
thought  and  assiduously  acquiring  the  marks  of  honour¬ 
able  leisure,  and  then  carrying  the  exhibition  of  these 
adventitious  marks  of  exemption  from  employment  out 
in  a  strenuous  and  systematic  discipline.  Plainly,  this 
is  a  point  at  which  a  diligent  application  of  effort  and 
expenditure  may  materially  further  the  attainment  of  a 
decent  proficiency  in  the  leisure-class  proprieties.  Con¬ 
versely,  the  greater  the  degree  of  proficiency  and  the 
more  patent  the  evidence  of  a  high  degree  of  habitua¬ 
tion  to  observances  which  serve  no  lucrative  or  other 
directly  useful  purpose,  the  greater  the  consumption  of 
time  and  substance  impliedly  involved  in  their  acquisi¬ 
tion,  and  the  greater  the  resultant  good  repute.  Hence, 
under  the  competitive  struggle  for  proficiency  in  good 
manners,  it  comes  about  that  much  pains  is  taken  with 
the  cultivation  of  habits  of  decorum ;  and  hence  the 
details  of  decorum  develop  into  a  comprehensive  dis¬ 
cipline,  conformity  to  which  is  required  of  all  who  would 
be  held  blameless  in  point  of  repute.  And  hence,  on  the 
other  hand,  this  conspicuous  leisure  of  which  decorum 
is  a  ramification  grows  gradually  into  a  laborious  drill 
in  deportment  and  an  education  in  taste  and  discrimina¬ 
tion  as  to  what  articles  of  consumption  are  decorous 
and  what  are  the  decorous  methods  of  consuming  them. 

In  this  connection  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the  pos¬ 
sibility  of  producing  pathological  and  other  idiosyn- 
/  crasies  of  person  and  manner  by  shrewd  mimicry  and 
a  systematic  drill  have  been  turned  to  account  in  the 
deliberate  production  of  a  cultured  class  —  often  with 
,  a  very  happy  effect.  In  this  way,  by  the  process  vul- 


Conspicuous  Leisure 


51 


garly  known  as  snobbery,  a  syncopated  evolution  of 
gentle  birth  and  breeding  is  achieved  in  the  case  of  a 
goodly  number  of  families  and  lines  of  descent.  This 
syncopated  gentle  birth  gives  results  which,  in  point  of 
serviceability  as  a  leisure-class  factor  in  the  population, 
are  in  no  wise  substantially  inferior  to  others  who  may 
have  had  a  longer  but  less  arduous  training  in  the 
pecuniary  proprieties. 

There  are,  moreover,  measureable  degrees  of  con¬ 
formity  to  the  latest  accredited  code  of  the  punctilios  as 
regards  decorous  means  and  methods  of  consumption. 
Differences  between  one  person  and  another  in  the 
degree  of  conformity  to  the  ideal  in  these  respects  can 
be  compared,  and  persons  may  be  graded  and  scheduled 
with  some  accuracy  and  effect  according  to  a  progres¬ 
sive  scale  of  manners  and  breeding.  The  award  of 
reputability  in  this  regard  is  commonly  made  in  good 
faith,  on  the  ground  of  conformity  to  accepted  canons 
of  taste  in  the  matters  concerned,  and  without  conscious 
regard  to  the  pecuniary  standing  or  the  degree  of  leisure 
practised  by  any  given  candidate  for  reputability;  but 
the  canons  of  taste  according  to  which  the  award  is 
made  are  constantly  under  the  surveillance  of  the  law 
of  conspicuous  leisure,  and  are  indeed  constantly  under¬ 
going  change  and  revision  to  bring  them  into  closer 

1 

conformity  with  its  requirements.  So  that  while  the 
proximate  ground  of  discrimination  may  be  of  another 
kind,  still  the  pervading  principle  and  abiding  test  of 
good  breeding  is  the  requirement  of  a  substantial  and 
patent  waste  of  time.  There  may  be  some  considera¬ 
ble  range  of  variation  in  detail  within  the  scope  of  this 


UNIVERSITY  Of  llUMOIt 
LIBRARY 


52 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


principle,  but  they  are  variations  of  form  and  expres¬ 
sion,  not  of  substance. 

Much  of  the  courtesy  of  everyday  intercourse  is  of 
course  a  direct  expression  of  consideration  and  kindly 
good-will,  and  this  element  of  conduct  has  for  the  most 
part  no  need  of  being  traced  back  to  any  underlying 
ground  of  reputability  to  explain  either  its  presence  or 
the  approval  with  which  it  is  regarded;  but  the  same 
is  not  true  of  the  code  of  proprieties.  These  latter  are 
expressions  of  status.  It  is  of  course  sufficiently  plain, 
to  any  one  who  cares  to  see,  that  our  bearing  towards 
menials  and  other  pecuniarily  dependent  inferiors  is 
the  bearing  of  the  superior  member  in  a  relation  of 
status,  though  its  manifestation  is  often  greatly  modi¬ 
fied  and  softened  from  the  original  expression  of  crude 
dominance.  Similarly,  our  bearing  towards  superiors, 
and  in  great  measure  towards  equals,  expresses  a  more 
or  less  conventionalised  attitude  of  subservience.  Wit¬ 
ness  the  masterful  presence  of  the  high-minded  gentle¬ 
man  or  lady,  which  testifies  to  so  much  of  dominance 
and  independence  of  economic  circumstances,  and  which 
at  the  same  time  appeals  with  such  convincing  force  to 
'  our  sense  of  what  is  right  and  gracious.  It  is  among 
this  highest  leisure  class,  who  have  no  superiors  and 
few  peers,  that  decorum  finds  its  fullest  and  maturest 
expression ;  and  it  is  this  highest  class  also  that  gives 
decorum  that  definitive  formulation  which  serves  as  a 
canon  of  conduct  for  the  classes  beneath.  And  here 
also  the  code  is  most  obviously  a  code  of  status  and 
shows  most  plainly  its  incompatibility  with  all  vulgarly 
productive  work.  A  divine  assurance  and  an  imperious 


Conspicuous  Leisure 


53 


complaisance,  as  of  one  habituated  to  require  subser¬ 
vience  and  to  take  no  thought  for  the  morrow,  is  the 
birthright  and  the  criterion  of  the  gentleman  at  his 
best;  and  it  is  in  popular  apprehension  even  more  than 
that,  for  this  demeanour  is  accepted  as  an  intrinsic  at¬ 
tribute  of  superior  worth,  before  which  the  base-born 
commoner  delights  to  stoop  and  yield. 

As  has  been  indicated  in  an  earlier  chapter,  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  the  institution  of  ownership  has 
begun  with  the  ownership  of  persons,  primarily  women. 
The  incentives  to  acquiring  such  property  have  ap¬ 
parently  been:  (i)  a  propensity  for  dominance  and  coer¬ 
cion  ;  (2)  the  utility  of  these  persons  as  evidence  of  the 
prowess  of  their  owner;  (3)  the  utility  of  their  services. 

Personal  service  holds  a  peculiar  place  in  the  eco¬ 
nomic  development'.  During  the  stage  of  quasi-peaceable 
industry,  and  especially  during  the  earlier  development 
of  industry  within  the  limits  of  this  general  stage,  the 
utility  of  their  services  seems  commonly  to  be  the  domi¬ 
nant  motive  to  the  acquisition  of  property  in  persons. 
Servants  are  valued  for  their  services.  But  the  domi¬ 
nance  of  this  motive  is  not  due  to  a  decline  in  the  abso¬ 
lute  importance  of  the  other  two  utilities  possessed  by 
servants.  It  is  rather  that  the  altered  circumstances  of 
life  accentuate  the  utility  of  servants  for  this  last-named 
purpose.  Women  and  other  slaves  are  highly  valued, 
both  as  an  evidence  of  wealth  and  as  a  means  of  accu¬ 
mulating  wealth.  Together  with  cattle,  if  the  tribe  is 
a  pastoral  one,  they  are  the  usual  form  of  investment 
for  a  profit.  To  such  an  extent  may  female  slavery  give 


54 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


its  character  to  the  economic  life  under  the  quasi- 
peaceable  culture  that  the  woman  even  comes  to  serve 
as  a  unit  of  value  among  peoples  occupying  this  cultural 
stage — as  for  instance  in  Homeric  times.  Where  this 
is  the  case  there  need  be  little  question  but  that  the 
basis  of  the  industrial  system  is  chattel  slavery  and  that 
the  women  are  commonly  slaves.  The  great,  pervading 
human  relation  in  such  a  system  is  that  of  master  and 
servant.  The  accepted  evidence  of  wealth  is  the  pos¬ 
session  of  many  women,  and  presently  also  of  other 
slaves  engaged  in  attendance  on  their  master’s  person 
and  in  producing  goods  for  him. 

A  division  of  labour  presently  sets  in,  whereby  per¬ 
sonal  service  and  attendance  on  the  master  becomes  the 
special  office  of  a  portion  of  the  servants,  while  those 
who  are  wholly  employed  in  industrial  occupations 
proper  are  removed  more  and  more  from  all  imme¬ 
diate  relation  to  the  person  of  their  owner.  At  the 
same  time  those  servants  whose  office  is  personal 
service,  including  domestic  duties,  come  gradually  to 
be  exempted  from  productive  industry  carried  on  for 
gain. 

This  process  of  progressive  exemption  from  the  com- 
mon  run  of  industrial  employment  will  commonly  begin 
t  with  the  exemption  of  the  wife,  or  the  chief  wife.  After 
the  community  has  advanced  to  settled  habits  of  life, 
wife-capture  from  hostile  tribes  becomes  impracticable 
j  as  a  customary  source  of  supply.  Where  this  cultural 
advance  has  been  achieved,  the  chief  wife  is  ordinarily 
of  gentle  blood,  and  the  fact  of  her  being  so  will  hasten 
her  exemption  from  vulgar  employment.  The  manner 


Conspicuous  Leisure 


55 


in  which  the  concept  of  gentle  blood  originates,  as  well 
as  the  place  which  it  occupies  in  the  development  of  mar¬ 
riage,  cannot  be  discussed  in  this  place.  For  the  pur¬ 
pose  in  hand  it  will  be  sufficient  to  say  that  gentle  blood 
is  blood  which  has  been  ennobled  by  protracted  con¬ 
tact  with  accumulated  wealth  or  unbroken  prerogative. 
The  woman  with  these  antecedents  is  preferred  in  mar¬ 
riage,  both  for  the  sake  of  a  resulting  alliance  with  her 
powerful  relatives  and  because  a  superior  worth  is  felt 
to  inhere  in  blood  which  has  been  associated  with  many 
goods  and  great  power.  She  will  still  be  her  husband’s 
chattel,  as  she  was  her  father’s  chattel  before  her  pur¬ 
chase,  but  she  is  at  the  same  time  of  her  father’s  gentle 
blood ;  and  hence  there  is  a  moral  incongruity  in  her 
occupying  herself  with  the  debasing  employments  of  her 
fellow-servants.  However  completely  she  may  be  sub¬ 
ject  to  her  master,  and  however  inferior  to  the  male 
members  of  the  social  stratum  in  which  her  birth  has 
placed  her,  the  principle  that  gentility  is  transmissible 
will  act  to  place  her  above  the  common  slave ;  and  so 
soon  as  this  principle  has  acquired  a  prescriptive  author¬ 
ity  it  will  act  to  invest  her  in  some  measure  with  that 
prerogative  of  leisure  which  is  the  chief  mark  of  gentil¬ 
ity.  Furthered  by  this  principle  of  transmissible  gen¬ 
tility  the  wife’s  exemption  gains  in  scope,  if  the  wealth 
of  her  owner  permits  it,  until  it  includes  exemption  from 
\  debasing  menial  service  as  well  as  from  handicraft.  As 
I  the  industrial  development  goes  on  and  property  be¬ 
comes  massed  in  relatively  fewer  hands,  the  conventional 
standard  of  wealth  of  the  upper  class  rises.  The  same 
tendency  to  exemption  from  handicraft,  and  in  the 


56  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

course  of  time  from  menial  domestic  employments,  will 
then  assert  itself  as  regards  the  other  wives,  if  such 
there  are,  and  also  as  regards  other  servants  in  immedi¬ 
ate  attendance  upon  the  person  of  their  master.  The 
exemption  comes  more  tardily  the  remoter  the  relation 
in  which  the  servant  stands  to  the  person  of  the  master. 

If  the  pecuniary  situation  of  the  master  permits  it, 
the  development  of  a  special  class  of  personal  or  body 
servants  is  also  furthered  by  the  very  grave  importance 
which  comes  to  attach  to  this  personal  service.  The 
master’s  person,  being  the  embodiment  of  worth  and 
honour,  is  of  the  most  serious  consequence.  Both  for 
his  reputable  standing  in  the  community  and  for  his 
self-respect,  it  is  a  matter  of  moment  that  he  should 
have  at  his  call  efficient  specialised  servants,  whose 
attendance  upon  his  person  is  not  diverted  from  this 
their  chief  office  by  any  by-occupation.  These  special¬ 
ised  servants  are  useful  more  for  show  than  for  service 
actually  performed.  In  so  far  as  they  are  not  kept 
for  exhibition  simply,  they  afford  gratification  to  their 
master  chiefly  in  allowing  scope  to  his  propensity  for 
dominance.  It  is  true,  the  care  of  the  continually  in¬ 
creasing  household  apparatus  may  require  added  labour  ; 
but  since  the  apparatus  is  commonly  increased  in  order 
to  serve  as  a  means  of  good  repute  rather  than  as  a 
means  of  comfort,  this  qualification  is  not  of  great 
weight.  All  these  lines  of  utility  are  better  served  by 
a  larger  number  of  more  highly  specialised  servants. 
There  results,  therefore,  a  constantly  increasing  differ¬ 
entiation  and  multiplication  of  domestic  and  body  ser¬ 
vants,  along  with  a  concomitant  progressive  exemption 


Conspicuous  Leisure 


57 


of  such  servants  from  productive  labour.  By  virtue  of 
their  serving  as  evidence  of  ability  to  pay,  the  office  of 
such  domestics  regularly  tends  to  include  continually 
fewer  duties,  and  their  service  tends  in  the  end  to  be¬ 
come  nominal  only.  This  is  especially  true  of  those  ser¬ 
vants  who  are  in  most  immediate  and  obvious  attendance 
upon  their  master.  So  that  the  utility  of  these  comes 
to  consist,  in  great  part,  in  their  conspicuous  exemption 
from  productive  labour  and  in  the  evidence  which  this 
exemption  affords  of  their  master’s  wealth  and  power. 

After  some  considerable  advance  has  been  made  in 
the  practice  of  employing  a  special  corps  of  servants  for 
the  performance  of  a  conspicuous  leisure  in  this  man¬ 
ner,  men  begin  to  be  preferred  above  women  for  ser¬ 
vices  that  bring  them  obtrusively  into  view.  Men, 
especially  lusty,  personable  fellows,  such  as  footmen 
and  other  menials  should  be,  are  obviously  more  power¬ 
ful  and  more  expensive  than  women.  _They_are  .better 

llVyA  'J.-  > 

fitted  for  this  work,  as  showing  a  larger  waste  of  time 
and  of  human  energy.  Hence  it  comes  about  that  in 
the  economy  of  the  leisure  class  the  busy  housewife  of 
the  early  patriarchal  days,  with  her  retinue  of  hard¬ 
working  handmaidens,  presently  gives  place  to  the  lady 
and  the  lackey. 

In  all  grades  and  walks  of  life,  and  at  any  stage  of  the 
economic  development,  the  leisure  of  the  lady  and  of  the 
lackey  differs  from  the  leisure  of  the  gentleman  in  his 
own  right  in  that  it  is  an  occupation  of  an  ostensibly 
laborious  kind.  It  takes  the  form,  in  large  measure,  of 
a  painstaking  attention  to  the  service  of  the  master,  or 
to  the  maintenance  and  elaboration  of  the  household 


58  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

f  paraphernalia ;  so  that  it  is  leisure  only  in  the  sense 
that  little  or  no  productive  work  is  performed  by  this 
class,  not  in  the  sense  that  all  appearance  of  labour  is 
avoided  by  them.  The  duties  performed  by  the  lady,  or 
by  the  household  or  domestic  servants,  are  frequently 
arduous  enough,  and  they  are  also  frequently  directed 
to  ends  which  are  considered  extremely  necessary  to 
the  comfort  of  the  entire  household.  So  far  as  these 
services  conduce  to  the  physical  efficiency  or  comfort  of 
the  master  or  the  rest  of  the  household,  they  are  to  be 
accounted  productive  work.  Only  the  residue  of  em¬ 
ployment  left  after  deduction  of  this  effective  work  is 
to  be  classed  as  a  performance  of  leisure. 

But  much  of  the  services  classed  as  household  cares 
in  modern  everyday  life,  and  many  of  the  “utilities”  re¬ 
quired  for  a  comfortable  existence  by  civilised  man,  are 
of  a  ceremonial  character.  They  are,  therefore,  properly 
to  be  classed  as  a  performance  of  leisure  in  the  sense  in 
which  the  term  is  here  used.  They  may  be  none  the 
less  imperatively  necessary  from  the  point  of  view  of 
decent  existence ;  they  may  be  none  the  less  requisite 
for  personal  comfort  even,  although  they  may  be  chiefly 
or  wholly  of  a  ceremonial  character.  But  in  so  far  as 
they  partake  of  this  character  they  are  imperative  and 
requisite  because  we  have  been  taught  to  require  them 
under  pain  of  ceremonial  uncleanness  or  unworthiness. 
We  feel  discomfort  in  their  absence,  but  not  because 
their  absence  results  directly  in  physical  discomfort ; 
nor  would  a  taste  not  trained  to  discriminate  between 
the  conventionally  good  and  the  conventionally  bad 
take  offence  at  their  omission.  In  so  far  as  this  is  true 


Conspicuous  Leisure 


59 


i 


the  labour  spent  in  these  services  is  to  be  classed  as  lei¬ 
sure  ;  and  when  performed  by  others  than  the  economi¬ 
cally  free  and  self-directing  head  of  the  establishment, 
they  are  to  be  classed  as  vicarious  leisure. 

The  vicarious  leisure  performed  by  housewives  and 
menials,  under  the  head  of  household  cares,  may  fre¬ 
quently  develop  into  drudgery,  especially  where  the 
competition  for  reputability  is  close  and  strenuous. 
This  is  frequently  the  case  in  modern  life.  Where  this 
happens,  the  domestic  service  which  comprises  the 
duties  of  this  servant  class  might  aptly  be  designated 
as  wasted  effort,  rather  than  as  vicarious  leisure.  But 
the  latter  term  has  the  advantage  of  indicating  the  line 
of  derivation  of  these  domestic  offices,  as  well  as  of 
neatly  suggesting  the  substantial  economic  ground  of 
their  utility  ;  for  these  occupations  are  chiefly  useful 
as  a  method  of  imputing  pecuniary  reputability  to  the 
master  or  to  the  household  on  the  ground  that  a  given 
amount  of  time  and  effort  is  conspicuously  wasted  in 
that  behalf. 

In  this  way,  then,  there  arises  a  subsidiary  or  deriva¬ 
tive  leisure  class,  whose  office  is  the  performance  of  a 
vicarious  leisure  for  the  behoof  of  the  reputability  of 
the  primary  or  legitimate  leisure  class.  This  vicari¬ 
ous  leisure  class  is  distinguished  from  the  leisure  class 
proper  by  a  characteristic  feature  of  its  habitual  mode 
of  life.  The  leisure  of  the  master  class  is,  at  least 
ostensibly,  an  indulgence  of  a  pro&li-vfty-for  the  avoid¬ 
ance  of  labour  and  is  presumed  to  enhance  the  master’s 
own  well-being  and  fulness  of  life ;  but  the  leisure  of 
the  servant  class  exempt  from  productive  labour  is  in 


60  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

some  sort  a  performance  exacted  from  them,  and  is 
not  normally  or  primarily  directed  to  their  own_conifojt. 
The  leisure  of  the  servant  is  not  his  own  leisure.  So 
far  as  he  is  a  servant  in  the  full  sense,  and  not  at  the 
same  time  a  member  of  a  lower  order  of  the  leisure 
class  proper,  his  leisure  normally  passes  under  the  guise 
of  specialised  service  directed  to  the  furtherance  of  his 
master’s  fulness  of  life.  Evidence  of  this  relation  of 
subservience  is  obviously  present  in  the  servant’s  car¬ 
riage  and  manner  of  life.  The  like  is  often  true  of  the 
wife  throughout  the  protracted  economic  stage  during 
which  she  is  still  primarily  a  servant  —  that  is  to  say,  so 
long  as  the  household  with  a  male  head  remains  in  force. 
In  order  to  satisfy  the  requirements  of  the  leisure-class 
scheme  of  life,  the  servant  should  show  not  only  an 
attitude  of  subservience,  but  also  the  effects  of  special 
training  and  practice  in  subservience.  The  servant  or 
wife  should  not  only  perform  certain  offices  and  show  a 
servile  disposition,  but  it  is  quite  as  imperative  that 
they  should  show  an  acquired  facility  in  the  tactics  of 
subservience  —  a  trained  conformity  to  the  canons  of 
effectual  and  conspicuous  subservience.  Even  to-day 
it  is  this  aptitude  and  acquired  skill  in  the  formal  mani¬ 
festation  of  the  servile  relation  that  constitutes  the 
chief  element  of  utility  in  our  highly  paid  servants,  as 
well  as  one  of  the  chief  ornaments  of  the  well-bred 
housewife. 

X  The  first  requisite  of  a  good  servant  is  that  he  should 
conspicuously  know  his  place.  It  is  not  enough  that  he 
knows  how  to  effect  certain  desired  mechanical  results  ; 
he  must,  above  all,  know  how  to  effect  these  results  in 


Conspicicous  Leisure  6 1 

due  forrm^  Domestic  service  might  be  said  to  be  a 
spiritual  rather  than  a  mechanical  function.  Gradually 
there  grow^__up  .aix-«ia^bemte'system  of  good  form,  spe¬ 
cifically  regulating  the  manner  in  which  this  vicarious 
leisure  of  the  servant  class  is  to  be  performed.  Any 
departure  from  these  canons  of  form  is  to  be  deprecated, 
not  so  much  because  it  evinces  a  shortcoming  in  me¬ 
chanical  efficiency,  or  even  that  it  shows  an  absence 
of  the  servile  attitude  and  temperament,  but  because,  in 
the  last  analysis,  it  shows  the  absence  of  special  train¬ 
ing.  Special  training  in  personal  service  costs  time  and 
effort,  and  where  it  is  obviously  present  in  a  high  de¬ 
gree,  it  argues  that  the  servant  who  possesses  it,  neither 
is  nor  has  been  habitually  engaged  in  any  productive 
occupation.  It  is  prima  facie  evidence  of  a  vicarious 
leisure  extending  far  back  in  the  past.  So  that  trained 
service  has  utility,  not  only  as  gratifying  the  master’s 
instinctive  liking  for  good  and  skilful  workmanship  and 
his  propensity  for  conspicuous  dominance  over  those 
whose  lives  are  subservient  to  his  own,  but  it  has  utility 
also  as  putting  in  evidence  a  much  larger  consumption 
of  human  service  than  would  be  shown  by  the  mere 
present  conspicuous  leisure  performed  by  an  untrained 
person.  It  is  a  serious  grievance,  if  a  gentleman’s 
butler  or  footman  performs  his  duties  about  his  master’s 
table  or  carriage  in  such  unformed  style  as  to  suggest 
that  his  habitual  occupation  may  be  ploughing  or  sheep- 
herding.  Such  bungling  work  would  imply  inability  on 
the  master’s  part  to  procure  the  service  of  specially^ 
trained  servants ;  that  is  to  say,  it  would  imply  inability 
to  pay  for  the  .consumption  of  time,  effort,  and  instruc- 


62 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


tion  required  to  fit  a  trained  servant  for  special  service 
under  an  exacting  code  of  forms.  If  the  performance 
of  the  servant  argues  lack  of  means  on  the  part  of  his 
master,  it  defeats  its  chief  substantial  end ;  for  thqpt 
chief  use  of  servants  is  the  evidence  they  afford  of  the. 
master’s  ability  to  pay. 

What  has  just  been  said  might  be  taken  to  imply 
that  the  offence  of  an  under-trained  servant  lies  in  a 
direct  suggestion  of  inexpensiveness  or  of  usefulness. 
Such,  of  course,  is  not  the  case.  The  connection  is 
much  less  immediate.  What  happens  here  is  what 
happens  generally.  Whatever  approves  itself  to  us 
on  any  ground  at  the  outset,  presently  comes  to  appeal 
to  us  as  a  gratifying  thing  in  itself ;  it  comes  to  rest  in 
our  habits  of  thought  as  substantially  right.  But  in 
order  that  any  specific  canon  of  deportment  shall  main¬ 
tain  itself  in  favour,  it  must  continue  to  have  the  support 
of,  or  at  least  not  be  incompatible  with,  the  habit  or 
aptitude  which  constitutes  the  norm  of  its  development. 
The  need  of  vicarious  leisure,  or  conspicuous  consump¬ 
tion  of  service,  is  a  dominant  incentive  to  the  keeping 
of  servants.  So  long  as  this  remains  true  it  may  be  set 
down  without  much  discussion  that  any  such  departure 
from  accepted  usage  as  would  suggest  an  abridged 
apprenticeship  in  service  would  presently  be  found 
insufferable.  The  requirement  of  an  expensive  vica¬ 
rious  leisure  acts  indirectly,  selectively,  by  guiding  the 
formation  of  our  taste,  —  of  our  sense  of  what  is  right 
in  these  matters, — and  so  weeds  out  unconformable 
departures  by  withholding  approval  of  them. 

As  the  standard  of  wealth  recognized  by  common 


Conspicuous  Leisure 


63 


consent  advances,  the  possession  and  exploitation  of 
servants  as  a  means  of  showing  superfluity  undergoes 
a  refinement.  The  possession  and  maintenance  of 
slaves  employed  in  the  production  of  goods  argues 
wealth  and  prowess,  but  the  maintenance  of  servants 
who  produce  nothing  argues  still  higher  wealth  and 
position.  Under  this  principle  there  arises  a  class  of 
servants,  the  more  numerous  the  better,  whose  sole 
office  is  fatuously  to  wait  upon  the  person  of  their 
owner,  and  so  to  put  in  evidence  his  ability  unproduc- 
tively  to  consume  a  large  amount  of  service.  There 
supervenes  a  division  of  labour  among  the  servants  or 
dependents  whose  life  is  spent  in  maintaining  the  honour 
of  the  gentleman  of  leisure.  So  that,  while  one  group 
produces  goods  for  him,  another  group,  usually  headed 
by  the  wife,  or  chief  wife,  consumes  for  him  in  conspicu¬ 
ous  leisure  ;  thereby  putting  in  evidence  his  ability  to 
sustain  large  pecuniary  damage  without  impairing  his 
superior  opulence. 

This  somewhat  idealized  and  diagrammatic  outline  of 
the  development  and  nature  of  domestic  service  comes 
nearest  being  true  for  that  cultural  stage  which  has  here 
been  named  the  “  quasi-peaceable  ”  stage  of  industry. 
At  this  stage  personal  service  first  rises  to  the  position 
of  an  economic  institution,  and  it  is  at  this  stage  that  it 
occupies  the  largest  place  in  the  community’s  scheme 
of  life.  In  the  cultural  sequence,  the  quasi-peaceable 
stage  follows  the  predatory  stage  proper,  the  two  being 
successive  phases  of  barbarian  life.  Its  characteristic 
feature  is  a  formal  observance  of  peace  and  order,  at  the 
same  time  that  life  at  this  stage  still  has  too  much  of 


64  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

coercion  and  class  antagonism  to  be  called  peaceable  in 
the  full  sense  of  the  word.  For  many  purposes,  and 
from  another  point  of  view  than  the  economic  one,  it 
might  as  well  be  named  the  stage  of  status.  The 
method  of  human  relation  during  this  stage,  and  the 
spiritual  attitude  of  men  at  this  level  of  culture,  is  well 
summed  up  under  that  term.  But  as  a  descriptive  term 
to  characterise  the  prevailing  methods  of  industry,  as 
well  as  to  indicate  the  trend  of  industrial  development 
at  this  point  in  economic  evolution,  the  term  “quasi- 
peaceable”  seems  preferable.  So  far  as  concerns  the 
communities  of  the  Western  culture,  this  phase  of  eco¬ 
nomic  development  probably  lies  in  the  past ;  except  for 
a  numerically  small  though  very  conspicuous  fraction  of 
the  community  in  whom  the  habits  of  thought  peculiar 
to  the  barbarian  culture  have  suffered  but  a  relatively 
slight  disintegration. 

Personal  service  is  still  an  element  of  great  economic 
importance,  especially  as  regards  the  distribution  and 
consumption  of  goods ;  but  its  relative  importance  even 
in  this  direction  is  no  doubt  less  than  it  once  was.  The 
best  development  of  this  vicarious  leisure  lies  in  the 
past  rather  than  in  the  present ;  and  its  best  expression 
in  the  present  is  to  be  found  in  the  scheme  of  life  of  the 
upper  leisure  class.  To  this  class  the  modern  culture 
owes  much  in  the  way  of  the  conservation  of  traditions, 
usages,  and  habits  of  thought  which  belong  on  a  more 
archaic  cultural  plane,  so  far  as  regards  their  widest 
acceptance  and  their  most  effective  development. 

In  the  modern  industrial  communities  the  mechanical 
contrivances  available  for  the  comfort  and  convenience 


Conspic7ious  Leisure 


65 


of  everyday  life  are  highly  developed.  So  much  so  that 
body  servants,  or,  indeed,  domestic  servants  of  any  kind, 
would  now  scarcely  be  employed  by  anybody  except  on 
the  ground  of  a  canon  of  reputability  carried  over  by 
tradition  from  earlier  usage.  The  only  exception  would 
be  servants  employed  to  attend  on  the  persons  of  the 
infirm  and  the  feeble-minded.  But  such  servants  prop¬ 
erly  come  under  the  head  of  trained  nurses  rather  than 
under  that  of  domestic  servants,  and  they  are,  therefore, 
an  apparent  rather  than  a  real  exception  to  the  rule. 

The  proximate  reason  for  keeping  domestic  servants, 
for  instance,  in  the  moderately  well-to-do  household  of 
to-day,  is  (ostensibly)  that  the  members  of  the  house¬ 
hold  are  unable  without  discomfort  to  compass  the  work 
required  by  such  a  modern  establishment.  And  the 
reason  for  their  being  unable  to  accomplish  it  is  (1)  that 
they  have  too  many  “social  duties,”  and  (2)  that  the 
work  to  be  done  is  too  severe  and  that  there  is  too  much 
of  it.  These  two  reasons  may  be  restated  as  follows  : 
(1)  Under  a  mandatory  code  of  decency,  the  time  and 
effort  of  the  members  of  such  a  household  are  required 
to  be  ostensibly  all  spent  in  a  performance  of  conspicu¬ 
ous  leisure,  in  the-TVay  of  calls,  drives,  clubs,  sewing- 
circles,  sports,  charity  organisation s.-  and  other  like  social 
functions.  These  persons  whose  time  and  energy  are 
employed  in  these  matters  privately  avow  that  all  these 
observances,  as  well  as  the  incidental  attention  to  dress 
and  other  conspicuous  consumption,  are  very  irksome 
but  altogether  unavoidable.  (2)  Under  the  reauirement 


living  has  grown  so  elaborate  and  cumbrous,  in  the  way 


66 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


of  dwellings,  furniture,  bric-a-brac,  wardrobe  and  meals, 
that  the  consumers  of  these  things  cannot  make  way 
with  them  in  the  required  manner  without  help.  Per¬ 
sonal  contact  with  the  hired  persons  whose  aid  is  called 
in  to  fulfil  the  routine  of  decency  is  commonly  distaste¬ 
ful  to  the  occupants  of  the  house,  but  their  presence  is 
endured  and  paid  for,  in  order  to  delegate  to  them  a 
share  in  this  onerous  consumption  of  household  goods. 
The  presence  of  domestic  servants,  and  of  the  special 
class  of  body  servants  in  an  eminent  degree,  is  a  conces¬ 
sion  of  physical  comfort  to  the  moral  need  of  pecuniary 
decency. 

The  largest  manifestation  of  vicarious  leisure  in 
modern  life  is  made  up  of  what  are  called  domestic 
duties.  These  duties  are  fast  becoming  a  species  of 
services  performed,  not  so  much  for  the  individual  be¬ 
hoof  of  the  head  of  the  household  as  for  the  reputability 
of  the  household  taken  as  a  corporate  unit  —  a  group  of 
which  the  housewife  is  a  member  on  a  footing  of  osten¬ 
sible  equality.  As  fast  as  the  household  for  which  they 
are  performed  departs  from  its  archaic  basis  of  owner¬ 
ship-marriage,  these  household  duties  of  course  tend  to 
fall  out  of  the  category  of  vicarious  leisure  in  the  origi¬ 
nal  sense ;  except  so  far  as  they  are  performed  by  hired 
servants.  That  is  to  say,  since  vicarious  leisure  is  pos¬ 
sible  only  on  a  basis  of  status  or  of  hired  service,  the 
disappearance  of  the  relation  of  status  from  human  in¬ 
tercourse  at  any  point  carries  with  it  the  disappearance 
*of  vicarious  leisure  so  far  as  regards  that  much  of  life. 
But  it  is  to  be  added,  in  qualification  of  this  qualifica¬ 
tion,  that  so  long  as  the  household  subsists,  even  with 


Conspicuous  Leisure 


6; 


a  divided  head,  this  class  of  non-productive  labour  per¬ 
formed  for  the  sake  of  household  reputability  must  still 
be  classed  as  vicarious  leisure,  although  in  a  slightly 
altered  sense.  It  is  now  leisure  performed  for  the  quasi¬ 
personal  corporate  household,  instead  of,  as  formerly, 
for  the  proprietary  head  of  the  household. 


i  v. 


CHAPTER  IV 
Conspicuous  Consumption 

In  what  has  been  said  of  the  evolution  of  the  vicari¬ 
ous  leisure  class  and  its  differentiation  from  the  general 
body  of  the  working  classes,  reference  has  been  made 
to  a  further  division  of  labour, — that  between  different 
servant  classes.  One  portion  of  the  servant  class, 
chiefly  those  persons  whose  occupation  is  vicarious  lei¬ 
sure,  come  to  undertake  a  new,  subsidiary  range  of 
duties  —  the  vicarious  consumption  of  goods.  The  most 
obvious  form  in  which  this  consumption  occurs  is  seen 
in  the  wearing  of  liveries  and  the  occupation  of  spacious 
servants’  quarters.  Another,  scarcely  less  obtrusive  or 
less  effective  form  of  vicarious  consumption,  and  a  much 
more  widely  prevalent  one,  is  the  consumption  of  food, 
clothing,  dwelling,  and  furniture  by  the  lady  and  the  rest 
of  the  domestic  establishment. 

But'  already  at  a  point  in  economic  evolution  far  ante¬ 
dating  the  emergence  of  the  lady,  specialised  consump¬ 
tion  of  goods  as  an  evidence  of  pecuniary  strength  had 
begun  to  work  out  in  a  more  or  less  elaborate  system. 
The  beginning  of  a  differentiation  in  consumption  even 
antedates  the  appearance  of  anything  that  can  fairly  be 
called  pecuniary  strength.  It  is  traceable  back  to  the 
initial  phase  of  predatory  culture,  and  there  is  even  a 

68 


Co usp i cuo us  Co usu mptio u 


6  9 


suggestion  that  an  incipient  differentiation  in  this  re¬ 
spect  lies  back  Of  the  beginnings  of  the  predatory  life. 
This  most  primitive  differentiation  in  the  consumption 
of  goods  is  like  the  later  differentiation  with  which  we 
are  all  so  intimately  familiar,  in  that  it  is  largely  of  a 
ceremonial  character,  but  unlike  the  latter  it  does  not 
rest  on  a  difference  in  accumulated  wealth.  The  utility 
of  consumption  as  an  evidence  of  wealth  is  to  be  classed 
as  a  derivative  growth.  It  is  an  adaptation  to  a  new 
end,  by  a  selective  process,  of  a  distinction  previously 
existing  and  well  established  in  men’s  habits  of  thought. 

.  In  the  earlier  phases  of  the  predatory  culture  the 
only  economic  differentiation  is  a  broad  distinction  be¬ 
tween  an  honourable  superior  class  made  up  of  the  able- 
bodied  men  on  the  one  side,  and  a  base  inferior  class  of 
labouring  women  on  the  other.  According  to  the  ideal 
scheme  of  life  in  force  at  that  time  it  is  the  office  of  the 
men  to  consume  what  the  women  produce.  Such  con¬ 
sumption  as  falls  to  the  women  is  merely  incidental  to 
their  work ;  it  is  a  means  to  their  continued  labour,  and 
not  a  consumption  directed  to  their  own  comfort  and 
fulness  of  life.  Unproductive  consumption  of  goods  is 
honourable,  primarily  as  a  mark  of  prowess  and  a-pdr-. 
quisite  of  human  dignity  ;  secondarily  it  becomes  sub¬ 
stantially  honourable  in  itself,  especially  the  consumption 
of  the  more  desirable  things.  The  consumption  of 
choice  articles  of  food,  and  frequently  also  of  rare  arti¬ 
cles  of  adornment,  becomes  tabu  to  the  women  and 
children  ;  and  if  there  is  a  base  (servile)  class  of  men,  the 
tabu  holds  also  for  them.  With  a  further  advance  in 
culture  this  tabu  may  change  into  simple  custom  of  a 


7  o 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


more  or  less  rigorous  character ;  but  whatever  be  the 
theoretical  basis  of  the  distinction  which  is  maintained, 
whether  it  be  a  tabu  or  a  larger  conventionality,  the 
features  of  the  conventional  scheme  of  consumption  do 
not  change  easily.  When  the  quasi-peaceable  stage  of 
industry  is  reached,  with  its  fundamental  institution  of 
chattel  slavery,  the  general  principle,  more  or  less  rigor¬ 
ously  applied,  is  that  the  base,  industrious  class  should 
consume  only  what  may  be  necessary  to  their  subsist¬ 
ence.  In  the  nature  of  things,  luxuries  and  the  com¬ 
forts  of  life  belong  to  the  leisure  class.  Under  the  tabu, 
certain  victuals,  and  more  particularly  certain  beverages, 
are  strictly  reserved  for  the  use  of  the  superior  class. 

The  ceremonial  differentiation  of  the  dietary  is  best 
seen  in  the  use  of  intoxicating  beverages  and  narcotics. 
If  these  articles  of  consumption  are  costly,  they  are  felt 
to  be  noble  and  honorific.  Therefore  the  base  classes, 
primarily  the  women,  practise  an  enforced  continence 
with  respect  to  these  stimulants,  except  in  countries 
where  they  are  obtainable  at  a  very  low  cost.  From 
archaic  times  down  through  all  the  length  of  the  patri¬ 
archal  rdgime  it  has  been  the  office  of  the  women  to 


prepare  and  administer  these  luxuries,  and  it  has  been 
the  perquisite  of  the  men  of  gentle  birth  and  breeding 
to  consume  them.  Drunkenness  and  the  other  patho- 
ogical  consequences  of  the  free  use  of  stimulants  there¬ 
fore  tend  in  their  turn  to  become  honorific,  as  being 
a  mark,  at  the  second  remove,  of  the  superior  status  of 
those  who  are  able  to  afford  the  indulgence.  Infirmi¬ 
ties  induced  by  over-indulgence  are  among  some  peoples 
freely  recognised  as  manly  attributes.  It  has  even  hap- 


Conspicuous  Consumption  7 1 

pened  that  the  name  for  certain  diseased  conditions  of 
the  body  arising  from  such  an  origin  has  passed  into 
everyday  speech  as  a  synonym  for  “noble”  or  “gentle.” 
It  is  only  at  a  relatively  early  stage  of  culture  that  the 
symptoms  of  expensive  vice  are  conventionally  accepted 
as  marks  of  a  superior  status,  and  so  tend  to  become 
virtues  and  command  the  deference  of  the  community ; 
but  the  reputability  that  attaches  to  certain  expensive 
vices  long  retains  so  much  of  its  force  as  to  appreciably 
lessen  the  disapprobation  visited  upon  the  men  of  the 
wealthy  or  noble  class  for  any  excessive  indulgence. 
The  same  invidious  distinction  adds  force  to  the  cur¬ 
rent  disapproval  of  any  indulgence  of  this  kind  on  the 
part  of  women,  minors,  and  inferiors.  This  invidious 
traditional  distinction  has  not  lost  its  force  even  among 
the  more  advanced  peoples  of  to-day.  Where  the  ex¬ 
ample  set  by  the  leisure  class  retains  its  imperative  force 
in  the  regulation  of  the  conventionalities,  it  is  observ¬ 
able  that  the  women  still  in  great  measure  practise  the 
same  traditional  continence  with  regard  to  stimulants. 

This  characterisation  of  the  greater  continence  in  the 
use  of  stimulants  practised  by  the  women  of  the  reputa¬ 
ble  classes  may  seem  an  excessive  refinement  of  logic 
at  the  expense  of  common  sense.  But  facts  within  easy 
reach  of  any  one  who  cares  to  know  them  go  to  say  that 
the  greater  abstinence  of  women  is  in  some  part  due  to 
an  imperative  conventionality ;  and  that  this  conven¬ 
tionality  is,  in  a  general  way,  strongest  where  the  patri¬ 
archal  tradition  —  the  tradition  that  the  woman  is  a 
chattel  —  has  retained  its  hold  in  greatest  vigour.  In 
a  sense  which  has  been  greatly  qualified  in  scope  and 


72  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

rigour,  but  which  has  by  no  means  lost  its  meaning 
even  yet,  this  tradition  says  that  the  woman,  being  a 
chattel,  should  consume  only  what  is  necessary  to  her 
sustenance,  —  except  so  far  as  her  further  consumption 
contributes  to  the  comfort  or  the  good  repute  of  her 
master.  The  consumption  of  luxuries,  in  the  true  sense, 
is  a  consumption  directed  to  the  comfort  of  the  con¬ 
sumer  himself,  and  is,  therefore,  a  mark  of  the  master. 
Any  such  consumption  by  others  can  take  place  only 
on  a  basis  of  sufferance.  In  communities  where  the 
popular  habits  of  thought  have  been  profoundly  shaped 
by  the  patriarchal  tradition  we  may  accordingly  look  for 
survivals  of  the  tabu  on  luxuries  at  least  to  the  extent 
of  a  conventional  deprecation  of  their  use  by  the  unfree 
and  dependent  class.  This  is  more  particularly  true  as 
regards  certain  luxuries,  the  use  of  which  by  the  de¬ 
pendent  class  would  detract  sensibly  from  the  comfort 
or  pleasure  of  their  masters,  or  which  are  held  to  be  of 
doubtful  legitimacy  on  other  grounds.  In  the  appre¬ 
hension  of  the  great  conservative  middle  class  of  West¬ 
ern  civilisation  the  use  of  these  various  stimulants  is 
obnoxious  to  at  least  one,  if  not  both,  of  these  objec¬ 
tions  ;  and  it  is  a  fact  too  significant  to  be  passed  over 
that  it  is  precisely  among  these  middle  classes  of  the 
Germanic  culture,  with  their  strong  surviving  sense  of 
the  patriarchal  proprieties,  that  the  women  are  to  the 
.  greatest  extent  subject  to  a  qualified  tabu  on  narcotics 
and  alcoholic  beverages.  With  many  qualifications  — 
with  more  qualifications  as  the  patriarchal  tradition  has 
gradually  weakened  —  the  general  rule  is  felt  to  be  right 
and  binding  that  women  should  consume  only  for  the 


Conspicuous  Consumption 


7  3 


benefit  of  their  masters.  The  objection  of  course  pre¬ 
sents  itself  that  expenditure  on  women’s  dress  and 
household  paraphernalia  is  an  obvious  exception  to  this 
rule  ;  but  it  will  appear  in  the  sequel  that  this  exception 
is  much  more  obvious  than  substantial. 

During  the  earlier  stages  of  economic  development, 
consumption  of  goods  without  stint,  especially  con¬ 
sumption  of  the  better  grades  of  goods,  —  ideally  all 
consumption  in  excess  of  the  subsistence  minimum,  — 
pertains  normally  to  the  leisure  class.  This  restriction 
tends  to  disappear,  at  least  formally,  after  the  later 
peaceable  stage  has  been  reached,  with  private  owner¬ 
ship  of  goods  and  an  industrial  system  based  on  wage 
labour  or  on  the  petty  household  economy.  But  during 
the  earlier  quasi-peaceable  stage,  when  so  many  of  the 
traditions  through  which  the  institution  of  a  leisure 
class  has  affected  the  economic  life  of  later  times  were 
taking  form  and  consistency,  this  principle  has  had  the 
force  of  a  conventional  law.  It  has  served  as  the  norm 
to  which  consumption  has  tended  to  conform,  and  any 
appreciable  departure  from  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  an 
aberrant  form,  sure  to  be  eliminated  sooner  or  later  in 

the^urdi£j^Qv»^€--o-f  development: - — ^ 

The  quasi-peaceable  gentleman  of  leisure,  then,  not 
rnly  consumes  of  the  staff  of  life  beyond  the  minimum 
'equired  for  subsistence  and  physical  efficiency,  but 
jhis  consumption  also  undergoes  a  specialisation  as  re¬ 
gards  the  quality  of  the  goods  consumed.  He  consumes 
freely  and  of  the  best,  in  food,  drink,  narcotics,  shelter, 
services,  ornaments,  apparel,  weapons  and  accoutre¬ 
ments,  amusements,  amulets,  and  idols  or  divinities.  In 


74  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

the  process  of  gradual  amelioration  which  takes  place 
in  the  articles  of  his  consumption,  the  motive  principle 
and  the  proximate  aim  of  innovation  is  no  doubt  the 
higher  efficiency  of  the  improved  and  more  elaborate 
products  for  personal  comfort  and  well-being.  But 
that  does  not  remain  the  sole  purpose  of  their  con¬ 
sumption.  The  canon  of  reputability  is  at  hand  and 
seizes  upon  such  innovations  as  are,  according  to  its 
standard,  fit  to  survive.  Since  the  consumption  of 
these  more  excellent  goods  is  an  evidence  of  wealth,  it 
becomes  honorific  ;  and  conversely,  the  failure  to  con¬ 
sume  in  due  quantity  and  quality  becomes  a  mark  of 
inferiority  and  demerit. 

This  growth  of  punctilious  discrimination  as  to  quali¬ 
tative  excellence  in  eating,  drinking,  etc.,  presently 
affects  not  only  the  manner  of  life,  but  also  the  training 
and  intellectual  activity  of  the  gentleman  of  leisure. 
He  is  no  longer  simply  the  successful,  aggressive  male, 
—  the  man  of  strength,  resource,  and  intrepidity.  In 
order  to  avoid  stultification  he  must  also  cultivate  his 
tastes,  for  it  now  becomes  incumbent  on  him  to  dis¬ 
criminate  with  some  nicety  between  the  noble  and  the 
ignoble  in  consumable  goods.  He  becomes  a  connoisseur 
in  creditable  viands  of  various  degrees  of  merit,  in  manly 
beverages  and  trinkets,  in  seemly  apparel  and  architect¬ 
ure,  in  weapons,  games,  dances,  and  the  narcotics. 
This  cultivation  of  the  aesthetic  faculty  requires  time 
and  application,  and  the  demands  made  upon  the  gentle¬ 
man  in  this  direction  therefore  tend  to  change  his  life 
of  leisure  into  a  more  or  less  arduous  application  to  the 
business  of  learning  how  to  live  a  life  of  ostensible 


Conspicuous  Consumption 


7  5 


leisure  in  a  becoming  way.  Closely  related  to  the  re¬ 
quirement  that  the  gentleman  must  consume  freely  and 
of  the  right  kind  of  goods,  there  is  the  requirement  that 
he  must  know  how  to  consume  them  in  a  seemly  man¬ 
ner.  His  life  of  leisure  must  be  conducted  in  due  form. 
Hence  arise  good  manners  in  the  way  pointed -out  in  an 
earlier  chapter.  High-bred  manners  and  ways  of  living 
are  items  of  conformity  to  the  norm  of  conspicuous 
leisure  and  conspicuous  consumption. 

Conspicuous  consumption  oTvatuabfer  goods  is  a  means 
of  reputability  to  the  gentleman  of  leisure.  As  wealth 
accumulates  on  his  hands,  his  own  unaided  effort  will 
not  avail  to  sufficiently  put  his  opulence  in  evidence 
by  this  method.  The  aid  of  friends  and  competitors  is 
therefore  brought  in  by  resorting  to  the  giving  of 
valuable  presents  and  expensive  feasts  and  entertain¬ 
ments.  Presents  and  feasts  had  probably  another  origin 
than  that  of  naive  ostentation,  but  they  acquired  their 
utility  for  this  purpose  very  early,  and  they  have  re¬ 
tained  that  character  to  the  present ;  so  that  their 
utility  in  this  respect  has  now  long  been  the  substantial 
ground  on  which  these  usages  rest.  Costly  entertain¬ 
ments,  such  as  the  potlatch  or  the  ball,  are  peculiarly 
adapted  to  serve  this  end.  The  competitor  with  whom 
the  entertainer  wishes  to  institute  a  comparison  is,  by 
this  method,  made  to  serve  as  a  means  to  the  end.  He 
consumes  vicariously  for  his  host  at  the  same  time  that 
he  is  a  witness  to  the  consumption  of  that  excess  of 
good  things  -which  his  host  is  unable  to  dispose  of 
single-handed,  and  he  is  also  made  to  witness  his  host’s 
facility  in  etiquette. 


76 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


In  the  giving  of  costly  entertainments  other  motives, 
*of  a  more  genial  kind,  are  of  course  also  present.  The 
custom  of  festive  gatherings  probably  originated  in 
motives  of  conviviality  and  religion  ;  these  motives  are 
also  present  in  the  later  development,  but  they  do  not 
continue  to  be  the  sole  motives.  The  latter-day  leisure- 
class  festivities  and  entertainments  may  continue  in 
some  slight  degree  to  serve  the  religious  need  and  in  a 
higher  degree  the  needs  of  recreation  and  conviviality, 
but  they  also  serve  an  invidious  purpose ;  and  they 
serve  it  none  the  less  effectually  for  having  a  colourable 
non-invidious  ground  in  these  more  avowable  motives. 
But  the  economic  effect  of  these  social  amenities  is  not 
therefore  lessened,  either  in  the  vicarious  consumption 
of  goods  or  in  the  exhibition  of  difficult  and  costly 
achievements  in  etiquette. 

As  wealth  accumulates,  the  leisure  class  develops 
further  in  function  and  structure  and  there  arises  a 
differentiation  within  the  class.  There  is  a  more  or  less 
elaborate  system  of  rank  and  grades.  This  differentia¬ 
tion  is  furthered  by  the  inheritance  of  wealth  and  the 
consequent  inheritance  of  gentility.  With  the  inheri¬ 
tance  of  gentility  goes  the  inheritance  of  obligatory  lei¬ 
sure  ;  and  gentility  of  a  sufficient  potency  to  entail  a  life 
of  leisure  may  be  inherited  without  the  complement  of 
wealth  required  to  maintain  a  dignified  leisure.  Gentle 
blood  may  be  transmitted  without  goods  enough  to 
afford  a  reputably  free  consumption  at  one’s  ease. 
Hence  results  a  class  of  impecunious  gentlemen  of  lei¬ 
sure,  incidentally  referred  to  already.  These  half-caste 
gentlemen  of  leisure  fall  into  a  system  of  hierarchical 


Conspicuous  Consumption 


77 


highest  grades  of  the  wealthy  leisure  class,  in  point  of 
birth,  or  in  point  of  wealth,  or  both,  outrank  the 
remoter-born  and  the  pecuniarily  weaker.  These 
lower  grades,  especially  the  impecunious,  or  marginal, 
gentlemen  of  leisure,  affiliate  themselves  by  a  system 
of  dependence  or  fealty  to  the  great  ones  ;  by  so  doing 
they  gain  an  increment  of  repute,  or  of  the  means  with 
which  to  lead  a  life  of  leisure,  from  their  patron.  They 
become  his  courtiers  or  retainers,  servants  ;  and  being 
fed  and  countenanced  by  their  patron  they  are  indices 
of  his  rank  and  vicarious  consumers  of  his  superfluous 
wealth.  Many  of  these  affiliated  gentlemen  of  leisure 
are  at  the  same  time  lesser  men  of  substance  in  their 
own  right ;  so  that  some  of  them  are  scarcely  at  all, 
others  only  partially,  to  be  rated  as  vicarious  consumers. 
So  many  of  them,  however,  as  make  up  the  retainers 
and  hangers-on  of  the  patron  may  be  classed  as  vica¬ 
rious  consumers  without  qualification.  Many  of  these 
again,  and  also  many  of  the  other  aristocracy  of  less 
degree,  have  in  turn  attracted  to  their  persons  a  more 
or  less  comprehensive  group  of  vicarious  consumers  in 
the  persons  of  their  wives  and  children,  their  servants, 
retainers,  etc. 

Throughout  this  graduated  scheme  of  vicarious  lei¬ 
sure  and  vicarious  consumption  the  rule  holds  that  these 
offices  must  be  performed  in  some  such  manner,  or 
under  some  such  circumstance  or  insignia,  as  shall 
point  plainly  to  the  master  to  whom  this  leisure  or 
consumption  pertains,  and  to  whom  therefore  the  re¬ 
sulting  increment  of  good  repute  of  right  inures.  The 


78 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


consumption  and  leisure  executed  by  these  persons  for 
their  master  or  patron  represents  an  investment  on  his 
part  with  a  view  to  an  increase  of  good  fame.  As 
regards  feasts  and  largesses  this  is  obvious  enough,  and 
the  imputation  of  repute  to  the  host  or  patron  here 
takes  place  immediately,  on  the  ground  of  common 
notoriety.  Where  leisure  and  consumption  is  per¬ 
formed  vicariously  by  henchmen  and  retainers,  imputa¬ 
tion  of  the  resulting  repute  to  the  patron  is  effected  by 
their  residing  near  his  person  so  that  it  may  be  plain 
to  all  men  from  what  source  they  draw.  As  the  group 
whose  good  esteem  is  to  be  secured  in  this  way  grows 
larger,  more  patent  means  are  required  to  indicate  the 
imputation  of  credit  for  the  leisure  performed,  and  to 
this  end  uniforms,  badges,  and  liveries  come  into  vogue. 
The  wearing  of  uniforms  or  liveries  implies  a  considera¬ 
ble  degree  of  dependence,  and  may  even  be  saidTe^be 
a  mark  of  servitude,  real  or  ostensible.^The  wearers 
of  uniforms  and  liveries  may  be  roughly  divided  into 
two  classes  — the  free  and  the  servile,  or  the  noble  and 
the  ignoble.  The  services  performed  by  them  are  like^ 
wise  divisible  into  noble  and  ignoble.  Of  course  the 
distinction  is  not  observed  with  strict  consistency  in 
practice  ;  the  less  debasing  of  the  base  services  and  the 
less  honorific  of  the  noble  functions  are  not  infre¬ 
quently  merged  in  the  same  person.  But  the  general 
distinction  is  not  on  that  account  to  be  overlooked. 
What  may  add  some  perplexity  is  the  fact  that  this 
fundamental  distinction  between  noble  and  ignoble, 
which  rests  on  the  nature  of  the  ostensible  service  per¬ 
formed,  is  traversed  by  a  secondary  distinction  into 


Conspicuous  Consumption 


79 


\ 

\ 

honorific  and  humiliating,  resting  on  the  rank  of  the 
person  for  whom  the  service  is  performed  or  whose 

Cjivery  is  worn.  So,  those  offices  which  are  by  right 
the  proper  employment  of  the  leisure  class  are  noble ; 
such  are  government,  fighting,  hunting,  the  care  of 
arms  and  accoutrements,  and  the  like, —  in  short,  those 
which  may  be  classed  as  ostensibly  predatory  employ¬ 
ments.  On  the  other  hand,  those  employments  which 
properly  fall  to  the  industrious  class  are  ignoble ;  such 
as  handicraft  or  other  productive  labour,  menial  services, 
and  the  like.  But  a  base  service  performed  for  a  per¬ 
son  of  very  high  degree  may  become  a  very  honorific 
office ;  as  for  instance  the  office  of  a  Maid  of  Honour  or 
of  a  Lady  in  Waiting  to  the  Queen,  or  the  King’s 
Master  of  the  Horse  or  his'  Keeper  of  the  Hounds. 
The  two  offices  last  named  suggest  a  principle  of  some 
general  bearing.  Whenever,  as  in  these  cases,  the  menial 
service  in  question  has  to  do  directly  with  the  primary 
leisure  employments  of  fighting  and  hunting,  it  easily 
acquires  a  reflected  honorific  character.  In  this  way 
great  honour  may  come  to  attach  to  an  employment 
which  in  its  own  nature  belongs  to  the  baser  sort. 

In  the  later  development  of  peaceable  industry,  the 
usage  of  employing  an  idle  corps  of  uniformed  men- 
at-arms  gradually  lapses.  Vicarious  consumption  by 
dependents  bearing  the  insignia  of  their  patron  or 
master  narrows  down  to  a  corps  of  liveried  menials. 
In  a  heightened  degree,  therefore,  the  livery  conies 
to  be  a  badge  of  servitude,  or  rather  of  servility. 
Something  of  a  honorific  character  always  attached 
to  the  livery  of  the  armed  retainer,  but  this  honorific 


8o 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


character  disappears  when  the  livery  becomes  the 
exclusive  badge  of  the  menial.  The  livery  becomes 
obnoxious  to  nearly  all  who  are  required  to  wear  it. 
We  are  yet  so  little  removed  from  a  state  of  effective 
slavery  as  still  to  be  fully  sensitive  to  the  sting  of  any 
imputation  of  servility.  This  antipathy  asserts  itself 
even  in  the  case  of  the  liveries  or  uniforms  which 
some  corporations  prescribe  as  the  distinctive  dress 
of  their  employees.  In  this  country  the  aversion  even 
goes  the  length  of  discrediting  —  in  a  mild  and  uncer¬ 
tain  way  —  those  government  employments,  military 
and  civil,  which  require  the  wearing  of  a  livery  or 
uniform. 

With  the  disappearance  of  servitude,  the  number 
of  vicarious  consumers  attached  to  any  one  gentle¬ 
man  tends,  on  the  whole,  to  decrease.  The  like  is 
of  course  true,  and  perhaps  in  a  still  higher  degree, 
of  the  number  of  dependents  who  perform  vicarious 
leisure  for  him.  In  a  general  way,  though  not  wholly 
nor  consistently,  these  two  groups  coincide.  The  de¬ 
pendent  who  was  first  delegated  for  these  duties  was 
the  wife,  or  the  chief  wife ;  and,  as  would  be  ex¬ 
pected,  in  the  later  development  of  the  institution, 
when  the  number  of  persons  by  whom  these  duties 
are  customarily  performed  gradually  narrows,  the ‘wife 
remains  the  last.  In  the  higher  grades  of  society  a 
large  volume  of  both  these  kinds  of  service  is  re¬ 
quired  ;  and  here  the  wife  is  of  course  still  assisted 
in  the  work  by  a  more  or  less  numerous  corps  of 
menials.  But  as  we  descend  the  social  scale,  the 
point  is  presently  reached  where  the  duties  of  vicari- 


Conspicuous  Consumption 


81 


ous-4efsure  and  consumption  devolve  upon  the  wife 
alone.  In  the  communities  of  the  Western  culture, 
this  point  is  at  present  found  among  the  lower  middle 
ss. 


And  here  occurs  a  curious  inversion.  It  is  a  fact 
of  common  observation  that  in  this  lower  middle  class 
there  is  no  pretence  of  leisure  on  the  part  of  the 
head  of  the  household.  Through  force  of  circum¬ 
stances  it  has  fallen  into  disuse.  But  the  middle-class 
wife  still  carries  on  the  business  of  vicarious  leisure, 
for  the  good  name  of  the  household  and  its  master. 

descending  the  social  scale  in  any  modern  indus¬ 
trial  community,  the  primary  fact  —  the  conspicuous 
leisure  of  the  master  of  the  household  —  disappears 
at  a  relatively  high  point.  The  head  of  the  middle- 
class  household  has  been  reduced  by  economic  cir¬ 
cumstances  to  turn  his  hand  to  gaining  a  livelihood 
by  occupations  which  often  partake  largely  of  the 
character  of  industry,  as  in  the  case  of  the  ordinary 
business  man  of  to-day.  But  the  derivative  fact  — 
the  vicarious  leisure  and  consumption  rendered  by 
the  wife,  and  the  auxiliary  vicarious  performance  of 
leisure  by  menials  —  remains  in  vogue  as  a  convan- 
tionality  which  the  demands  of  reputability  will  not 
suffer  to  be  slighted.  It  is  by  no  means  an  uncom¬ 
mon  spectacle  to  find  a  man  applying  himself  to 
work  with  the  utmost  assiduity,  in  order  that  his 
wife  may  in  due  form  render  for  him  that  degree  of 
vicarious  leisure  which  the  common  sense 


time  demands. 

The  leisure  rendered  by  the  wife  in  such  cases  is,  of 


8 2  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

course,  not  a  simple  manifestation  of  idleness  or  indo¬ 
lence.  It  almost  invariably  occurs  disguised  under  some 
form  of  work  or  household  duties  or  social  amenities, 
which  prove  on  analysis  to  serve  little  or  no  ulterior 
end  beyond  showing  that  she  does  not  and  need  not 
occupy  herself  with  anything  that  is  gainful  or  that  is 
of  substantial  use.  As  has  already  been  noticed  under 
the  head  of  manners,  the  greater  part  of  the  customary 
round  of  domestic  cares  to  which  the  middle-class  house¬ 
wife  gives  her  time  and  effort  is  of  this  character.  Not 
that  the  results  of  her  attention  to  household  matters, 
of  a  decorative  and  mundificatory  character,  are  not 
pleasing  to  the  sense  of  men  trained  in  middle-class 
proprieties ;  but  the  taste  to  which  these  effects  of 
household  adornment  and  tidiness  appeal  is  a  taste 
which  has  been  formed  under  the  selective  guidance  of 
a  canon  of  propriety  that  demands  just  these  evidences 
of  wasted  effort.  The  effects  are  pleasing  to  us  chiefly 
because  we  have  been  taught  to  find  them  pleasing. 
There  goes  into  these  domestic  duties  much  solicitude 
for  a  proper  combination  of  form  and  colour,  and  for 
other  ends  that  are  to  be  classed  as  aesthetic  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  term  ;  and  it  is  not  denied  that 
effects  having  some  substantial  aesthetic  value  are  some¬ 
times  attained.  Pretty  much  all  that  is  here  insisted  on 
is  that,  as  regards  these  amenities  of  life,  the  housewife’s 
efforts  are  under  the  guidance  of  traditions  that  have 
been  shaped  by  the  law  of  conspicuously  wasteful  ex¬ 
penditure  of  time  and  substance.  If  beauty  or  comfort 
is  achieved,  —  and  it  is  a  more  or  less  fortuitous  circum¬ 
stance  if  they  are,  —  they  must  be  achieved  by  means 


Conspicuous  Consumption 


83 


and  methods  that  commend  themselves  to  the  great 
economic  law  of  wasted  effort.  The  more  reputable, 


“presentable”  portion  of  middle-class  household  para¬ 
phernalia  are,  on  the  one  hand,  items  of  conspicuous 
consumption,  and  on  the  other  hand,  apparatus  for 
putting  in  evidence  the  vicarious  leisure  rendered  by 
the  housewife. 

The  requirement  of  vicarious  consumption  at  the  . 
hands  of  the  wife  continues  in  force  even  at  a  lower 
point  in  the  pecuniary  scale  than  the  requirement  of 
vicarious  leisure.  At  a  point  below  which  little  if  any 
pretence  of  wasted  effort,  in  ceremonial  cleanness  and 
the  like,  is  observable,  and  where  there  is  assuredly  no 
conscious  attempt  at  ostensible  leisure,  decency  still 
requires  the  wife  to  consume  some  goods  conspicuously 
for  the  reputability  of  the  household  and  its  head.  So 
that,  as  the  latter-day  outcome  of  this  evolution  of  an 
archaic  institution,  the  wife,  who  was  at  the  outset  the 
drudge  and  chattel  of  the  man,  both  in  fact  and  in 
theory,  —  the  producer  of  goods  for  him  to  consume, — 
has  become  the  ceremonial  consumer  of  goods  which  he 
produces.  But  she  still  quite  unmistakably  remains  his 
chattel  in  theory  ;  for  the  habitual  rendering  of  vicarious 
leisure  and  consumption  is  the  abiding  mark  of  the  un- 
free  servant. 

This  vicarious  consumption  practised  by  the  house- 

- 

hold  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes  can  not  be  counted 
as  a  direct  expression  of  the  leisure-class  scheme  of  life, 
since  the  household  of  this  pecuniary  grade  does  not 
/  belong  within  the  leisure  class.  It  is  rather  that  the 
leisure-cfoss-  scheme  of  life  here  comes  to  an  expression 


84 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


at  the  second  remove.  The  leisure  class  stands  atthe 
head  of  the  social  structure  in  point  of  reputability  ;  and 
-its  manner  of  life  and  its  standards  of  worth  therefore 
afford  the  norm  of  reputability  for  the  community.  The., 
observance  of  these  standards,  in  some  degree  of  ap¬ 
proximation,  becomes  incumbent  upon  all  classes  lower 
in  the  scale.  In  modern  civilized  communities  the 
lines  of  demarcation  between  social  classes  have  grown 
vague  and  transient,  and  wherever  this  happens  the 
norm  of  reputability  imposed  by  the  upper  class  ex¬ 
tends  its  coercive  influence  with  but  slight  hindrance 
down  through  the  social  structure  to  the  lowest  strata. 
The  result  is  that  the  members  of  each  stratum  accept 
as  their  ideal  of  decency  the  scheme  of  life  in  vogue  in 
the  next  higher  stratum,  and  bend  their  energies  to  live 
up  to  that  ideal.  On  pain  of  forfeiting  their  good  name 
and  their  self-respect  in  case  of  failure,  they  must  con¬ 
form  to  the  accepted  code,  at  least  in  appearance. 

The  basis  on  which  good  repute  in  any  highly  organ¬ 
ised  industrial  community  ultimately  rests  is  pecuniary 
strength  ;  and  the  means  of  showing  pecuniary  strength, 
and  so  of  gaining  or  retaining  a  good  name,  are  leisure 
and  a  conspicuous  consumption  of  goods.  Accordingly, 
both  of  these  methods  are  in  vogue  as  far  down  the 
scale  as  it  remains  possible ;  and  in  the  lower  strata  in 
which  the  two  methods  are  employed,  both  offices  are 
in  great  part  delegated  to  the  wife  and  children  of  the 
household.  Lower  still,  where  any  degree  of  leisure, 
even  ostensible,  has  become  impracticable  for  the  wife, 
the  conspicuous  consumption  of  goods  remains  and  is 
carried  on  by  the  wife  and  children.  The  man  of  the 


85 


V 

Conspicuous  Consumption 

household  also  can  do  something  in  this  direction,  and, 
indeed,  he  commonly  does ;  but  with  a  still  lower  de¬ 
scent  into  the  levels  of  indigence  —  along  the  margin 
of  the  slums  —  the  man,  and  presently  also  the  children, 
virtually  cease  to  consume  valuable  goods  for  appear¬ 
ances,  and  tlie_wornan-re mains  virtually  the  sole  expo¬ 
nent  of  the  household’s  pecuniary  decency.  No  class 
of  society,  not  even  the  most  abjectly  poor,  foregoes  all 
customary  conspicuous  consumption.  The  last  items 
of  this  category  of  consumption  are  not  given  up  ex¬ 
cept  under  stress  of  the  direst  necessity.  Very  much 
of  squalor  and  discomfort  will  be  endured  before  the 
last  trinket  or  the  last  pretence  of  pecuniary  decency  is 
put  away.  There  is  no  class  and  no  country  that  has 
yielded  so  abjectly  before  the  pressure  of  physical  want 
as  to  deny  themselves  all  gratification  of  this  higher  or 
spiritual  need. 

From  the  foregoing  survey  of  the  growth  of  con¬ 
spicuous  leisure  and  consumption,  it  appears  that  the 
utility  of  both  alike  for  the  purposes  of  reputability  lies 
in  the  element  of  waste  that  is  common  to  botha  In  the 
one  c-asc  if  .is  a  waste  of  time  and  effort,  in  the  other  it 
is  a  waste  of  goods.  Both  are  methods  of  demonstrat¬ 
ing  the  possession  of  wealth,  and  the  two  are  conven¬ 
tionally  accepted  as  equivalents.  The  choice  between 
them  is  a  question  of  advertising  expediency  simply,  ex¬ 
cept  so  far  as  it  may  be  affected  by  other  standards  of 
propriety,  springing  from  a  different  source.  On  grounds 
of  expediency  the  preference  may  be  given  to  the  one 
or  the  other  at  different  stages  of  the  economic  develop- 


86  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

ment.  The  question  is,  which  of  the  two  methods  will 
most  effectively  reach  the  persons  whose  convictions  it 
is  desired  to  affect.  Usage  has  answered  this  question 
in  different  ways  under  different  circumstances. 

So  long  as  the  community  or  social  group  is  small 
enough  and  compact  enough  to  be  effectually  reached 
by  common  notoriety  alone,  — -  that  is  to  say,  so  long  as 
the  human  environment  to  which  the  individual  is  re¬ 
quired  to  adapt  himself  in  respect  of  reputability  is  com¬ 
prised  within  his  sphere  of  personal  acquaintance  and 
neighbourhood  gossip,  —  so  long  the  one  method  is  about 
as  effective  as  the  other.  Each  will  therefore  serve 
about  equally  well  during  the  earlier  stages  of  social 
growth.  But  when  the  differentiation  has  gone  farther 
and  it  becomes  necessary  to  reach  a  wider  human  envi¬ 
ronment,  consumption  begins  to  hold  over  leisure  as  an 
ordinary  mearrs  of'decency.  This  is  especially  true  dur¬ 
ing  the  later,  peaceable  economic  stage.  The  means  of 
communication  and  the  mobility  of  the  population  now 
expose  the  individual  to  the  observation  of  many  persons 
who  have  no  other  means  of  judging  of  his  reputability 
than  the  display  of  goods  (and  perhaps  of  breeding) 
which  he  is  able  to  make  while  he  is  under  their  direct 
observation. 

The  modern  organisation  of  industry  works  in  the 
same  direction  also  by  another  line.  The  exigencies  of 
the  modern  industrial  system  frequently  place  individ¬ 
uals  and  households  in  juxtaposition  between  whom  there 
is  little  contact  in  any  other  sense  than  that  of  jux¬ 
taposition.  One’s  neighbours,  mechanically  speaking, 
often  are  socially  not  one’s  neighbours,  or  even  acquaint- 


Conspicuous  Consumption 


87 


ances  ;  and  still  their  transient  good  opinion  has  a  high 
degree  of  utility.  The  only  practicable  means  of  im¬ 
pressing  one’s  pecuniary  ability  on  these  unsympathetic 
observers  of  one’s  everyday  life  is  an  unremitting  dem¬ 
onstration  of  ability  to  pay.  In  the  modern  community 
there  is  also  a  more  frequent  attendance  at  large  gath¬ 
erings  of  people  to  whom  one’s  everyday  life  is  un¬ 
known  ;  in  such  places  as  churches,  theatres,  ballrooms, 
hotels,  parks,  shops,  and  the  like.  In  order  to  impress 
these  transient  observers,  and  to  retain  one’s  self-com¬ 
placency  under  their  observation,  the  signature  of  one’s 
k^pecuniary  strength  should  be  written  in  characters 
which  he  who  runs  may  read.  It  is  evident,  therefore, 
that  the  present  trend  of  the  development  is  in  the 
direction  of  heightening  the  utility  of  conspicuous  con¬ 
sumption  as  compared  with  leisure. 

It  is  also  noticeable  that  the  serviceability  of  con¬ 
sumption  as  a  means  of  repute,  as  well  as  the  insistence 
on  it  as  an  element  of  decency,  is  at  its  best  in  those 
portions  of  the  community  where  the  human  contact 
of  the  individual  is  widest  and  the  mobility  of  the  popu¬ 
lation  is  greatest.  Conspicuous  consumption  claims  a 
relatively  larger  portion  of  the  income  of  the  urban 
than  of  the  rural  population,  and  the  claim  is  also  more 
,  imperative.  The  result  is  that,  in  order  to  keep  up  a 
decent  appearance,  the  former  habitually  live  hand-to- 
mouth  to  a  greater  extent  than  the  latter.  So  it  comes, 
for  instance,  the  American  farmer  and  his  wife  and- 
daughters  are  notoriously  less  modish  in  their  dress, 
as  well  as  less  urbane  in  their  manners,  than  the 
city  artisan’s  family  with  an  equal  income.  It  is  not 


88  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

that  the  city  population  is  by  nature  much  more  eager 
for  the  peculiar  complacency  that  comes  of  a  conspicu¬ 
ous  consumption,  nor  has  the  rural  population  less  re¬ 
gard  for  pecuniary  decency.  But  the  provocation  to  this 
line  of  evidence,  as  well  as  its  transient  effectiveness, 
are  more  decided  in  the  city.  This  method  is  therefore 
more  readily  resorted  to,  and  in  the  struggle  to  outdo 
one  another  the  city  population  push  their  normal 
standard  of  conspicuous  consumption  to  a  higher  point, 
with  the  result  that  a  relatively  greater  expenditure  in 
this  direction  is  required  to  indicate  a  given  degree  of 
pecuniary  decency  in  the  city.  The  requirement  of 
conformity  to  this  higher  conventional  standard  becomes 
mandatory.  The  standard  of  decency  is  higher,  class 
for  class,  and  this  requirement  of  decent  appearance 
must  be  lived  up  to  on  pain  of  losing  caste. 

Consumption  becomes  a  larger  element  in  the  stand¬ 
ard  of  living  in  the  city  than  in  the  country.  Among 
the  country  population  its  place  is  to  some  extent  taken 
by  savings  and  home  comforts  known  through  the 
medium  of  neighbourhood  gossip  sufficiently  to  serve 
the  like  general  purpose  of  pecuniary  repute.  These 
home  comforts  and  the  leisure  indulged  in  —  where  the 
indulgence  is  found  —  are  of  course  also  in  great  part 
to  be  classed  as  items  of  conspicuous  consumption ; 
and  much  the  same  is  to  be  said  of  the  savings.  The 
smaller  amount  of  the  savings  laid  by  by  the  artisan 
class  is  no  doubt  due,  in  some  measure,  to  the  fact  that 
in  the  case  of  the  artisan  the  savings  are  a  less  effective 
means  of  advertisement,  relative  to  the  environment  in 
which  he  is  placed,  than  are  the  savings  of  the  people 


Conspicuous  Consumption 


89 


living  on  farms  and  in  the  small  villages.  Among  the 
latter,  everybody’s  affairs,  especially  everybody’s  pecuni¬ 
ary  status,  are  known  to  everybody  else.  Considered  by 
itself  simply  —  taken  in  the  first  degree  —  this  added 
provocation  to  which  the  artisan  and  the  urban  labour¬ 
ing  classes  are  exposed  may  not  very  seriously  decrease 
the  amount  of  savings  ;  but  in  its  cumulative  action, 
through  faising  the  standard  of  decent  expenditure,  its 
deterrent  effect  on  the  tendency  to  save  cannot  but  be 
very  great. 

A  felicitous  illustration  of  the  manner  in  which  this 
canon  of  reputability  works  out  its  results  is  seen  in 
the  practice  of  dram-drinking,  “  treating,”  and  smoking 
in  public  places,  which  is  customary  among  the  labour¬ 
ers  and  handicraftsmen  of  the  towns,  and  among  the 
lower  middle  class  of  the  urban  population  generally. 
Journeymen  printers  may  be  named  as  a  class  among 
whom  this  form  of  conspicuous  consumption  has  a 
great  vogue,  and  among  whom  it  carries  with  it  certain 
well-marked  consequences  that  are  often  deprecated. 
The  peculiar  habits  of  the  class  in  this  respect  are  com¬ 
monly  set  down  to  some  kind  of  an  ill-defined  moral 
deficiency  with  which  this  class  is  credited,  or  to  a 
morally  deleterious  influence  which  their  occupation 
is  supposed  to  exert,  in  some  unascertainable  way,  upon 
the  men  employed  in  it.  The  state  of  the  case  for  the 
men  who  work  in  the  composition  and  press  rooms  of 
the  common  run  of  printing-houses  may  be  summed  up 
as  follows.  Skill  acquired  in  any  printing-house  or  any 
city  is  easily  turned  to  account  in  almost  any  other 
house  or  city ;  that  is  to  say,  the  inertia  due  to  special 


go  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

training  is  slight.  Also,  this  occupation  requires  more 
than  the  average  of  intelligence  and  general  informa¬ 
tion,  and  the  men  employed  in  it  are  therefore  ordinarily 
more  ready  than  many  others  to  take  advantage  of  any 
slight  variation  in  the  demand  for  their  labour  from  one 
place  to  another.  The  inertia  due  to  the  home  feeling 
is  consequently  also  slight.  At  the  same  time  the 
wages  in  the  trade  are  high  enough  to  make  movement 
from  place  to  place  relatively  easy.  The  result  is  a 
‘great  mobility  of  the  labour  employed  in  printing ;  per¬ 
haps  greater  than  in  any  other  equally  well-defined  and 
considerable  body  of  workmen.  These  men  are  con¬ 
stantly  thrown  in  contact  with  new  groups  of  acquaint¬ 
ances,  with  whom  the  relations  established  are  transient 
or  ephemeral,  but  whose  good  opinion  is  valued  none 
the  less  for  the  time  being.  The  human  proclivity  to 
ostentation,  reenforced  by  sentiments  of  goodfellowship, 
leads  them  to  spend  freely  in  those  directions  which  will 
best  serve  these  needs.  Here  as  elsewhere  prescrip¬ 
tion  seizes  upon  the  custom  as  soon  as  it  gains  a  vogue, 
and  incorporates  it  in  the  accredited  standard  of  de¬ 
cency.  The  next  step  is  to  make  this  standard  of 
decency  the  point  of  departure  for  a  new  move  in  ad¬ 
vance  in  the  same  direction, — for  there  is  no  merit  in 
simple  spiritless  conformity  to  a  standard  of  dissipation 
that  is  lived  up  to  as  a  matter  of  course  by  every  one  in 
the  trade. 

The  greater  prevalence  of  dissipation  among  printers 
than  among  the  average  of  workmen  is  accordingly 
attributable,  at  least  in  some  measure,  to  the  greater 
ease  of  movement  and  the  more  transient  character  of 


Conspicuous  Consumption 


9i 


acquaintance  and  human  contact  in  this  trade.  But  the 
substantial  ground  of  this  high  requirement  in  dissipa¬ 
tion  is  in  the  last  analysis  no  other  than  that  same  pro¬ 
pensity  for  a  manifestation  of  dominance  and  pecuniary 
decency  which  makes  the  French  peasant-proprietor 
parsimonious  and  frugal,  and  induces  the  American 
millionaire  to  found  colleges,  hospitals  and  museums. 
If  the  canon  of  conspicuous  consumption  were  not  off¬ 
set  to  a  considerable  extent  by  other  features  of  human 
nature,  alien  to  it,  any  saving  should  logically  be  impos¬ 
sible  for  a  population  situated  as  the  artisan  and  labour¬ 
ing  classes  of  the  cities  are  at  present,  however  high 
their  wages  or  their  income  might  be. 

But  there  are  other  standards  of  repute  and  other, 
more  or  less  imperative,  canons  of  conduct,  besides  wealth 
and  its  manifestation,  and  some  of  these  come  in  to  ac¬ 
centuate  or  to  qualify  the  broad,  fundamental  canon  of 
conspicuous  waste.  Under  the  simple  test  of  effective¬ 
ness  for  advertising,  we  should  expect  to  find  leisure  and 
the  conspicuous  consumption  of  goods  dividing  the  field 
of  pecuniary  emulation  pretty  evenly  between  them  at 
*  the  outset.  Leisure  might  then  be  expected  gradually 
to  yield  ground  and  tend  to  obsolescence  as  the  economic 
development  goes  forward,  and  the  community  increases 
in  size  ;  while  the  conspicuous  consumption  of  goods 
should  gradually  gain  in  importance,  both  absolutely 
and  relatively,  until  it  had  absorbed  all  the  available 


leaving  nothing  over  beyond  a  bare  livelihood. 


But  the  actual  course  of  development  has  been  some¬ 
what  different  from  this  ideal  scheme.  Leisure  held 
the  first  place  at  the  start,  and  came  to  hold  a  rank  very 


92  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

much  above  wasteful  consumption  of  goods,  both  as  a 
direct  exponent  of  wealth  and  as  an  element  in  the 
standard  of  decency,  during  the  quasi-peaceable  culture. 
From  that  point  onward,  consumption  has  gained  ground, 
until,  at  present,  it  unquestionably  holds  the  primacy, 
though  it  is  still  far  from  absorbing  the  entire  margin  of 
production  above  the  subsistence  minimum. 

The  early  ascendency  of  leisure  as  a  means  of  reputa¬ 
bility  is  traceable  to  the  archaic  distinction  between 
noble  and  ignoble  employments.  Leisure  is  honourable 
and  becomes  imperative  partly  because  it  shows  exemp¬ 
tion  from  ignoble  labour.  The  archaic  differentiation 
into  noble  and  ignoble  classes  is  based  on  an  invidious 
distinction  between  employments  as  honorific  or  de¬ 
basing  ;  and  this  traditional  distinction  grows  into  an 
imperative  canon  of  decency  during  the  early  quasi- 
peaceable  stage.  Its  ascendency  is  furthered  by  the 
fact  that  leisure  is  still  fully  as  effective  an  evidence  of 
wealth  as  consumption.  Indeed,  so  effective  is  it  in  the 
relatively  small  and  stable  human  environment  to  which 
the  individual  is  exposed  at  that  cultural  stage,  that,  with 
the  aid  of  the  archaic  tradition  which  deprecates  all 
productive  labour,  it  gives  rise  to  a  large  impecunious 
leisure  class,  and  it  even  tends  to  limit  the  production 
of  the  community’s  industry  to  the  subsistence  mini¬ 
mum.  This  extreme  inhibition  of  industry  is  avoided 
because  slave  labour,  working  under  a  compulsion  more 
rigorous  than  that  of  reputability,  is  forced  to  turn  out 
a  product  in  excess  of  the  subsistence  minimum  of  the 
working  class.  The  subsequent  relative  decline  in  the 
use  of  conspicuous  leisure  as  a  basis  of  repute  is  due 


Conspicuous  Consumption 


93 


partly  to  an  increasing  relative  effectiveness  of  con¬ 
sumption  as  an  evidence  of  wealth  ;  but  in  part  it  is 
traceable  to  another  force,  alien,  and  in  some  degree 
antagonistic,  to  the  usage  of  conspicuous  waste. 

This  alien  factor  is  the  instinct  of  workmanship. 
Other  circumstances  permitting,  that  instinct  disposes 
men  to  look  with  favour  upon  productive  efficiency  and 
on  whatever  is  of  human  use.  It  disposes  them  to 
deprecate  waste  of  substance  or  effort.  The  instinct 
of  workmanship  is  present  in  all  men,  and  asserts  itself 
even  under  very  adverse  circumstances.  So  that  how¬ 
ever  wasteful  a  given  expenditure  may  be  in  reality,  it 
must  at  least  have  some  colourable  excuse  in  the  way  of 
an  ostensible  purpose.  The  manner  in  which,  under 

*  ,  ■  jr 

special  circumstances,  the  instinct  eventuates  in  a  taste 
for  exploit  and  an  invidious  discrimination  between 
noble  and  ignoble  classes  has  been  indicated  in  an 
earlier  chapter.  In  so  far  as  it  comes  into  conflict  with 
the  law  of  conspicuous  waste,  the  instinct  of  workman¬ 
ship  expresses  itself  not  so  much  in  insistence  on  sub¬ 
stantial  usefulness  as  in  an  abiding  sense  of  the  odious¬ 
ness  and  aesthetic  impossibility  of  what  is  obviously 
futile.  Being  of  the  nature  of  an  instinctive  affection, 
its  guidance  touches  chiefly  and  immediately  the  obvious 
and  apparent  violations  of  its  requirements.  It  is  only 
less  promptly  and  with  less  constraining  force  that  it 
reaches  such  substantial  violations  of  its  requirements 
as  are  appreciated  only  upon  reflection. 

So  long  as  all  labour  continues  to  be  performed  ex¬ 
clusively  or  usually  by  slaves,  the  baseness  of  all  pro¬ 
ductive  effort  is  too  constantly  and  deterrently  present 


94 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


in  the  mind  of  men  to  allow  the  instinct  of  workmanship 
seriously  to  take  effect  in  the  direction  of  industrial 
usefulness;  but  when  the  quasi-peaceable  stage  (with 
slavery  and  status)  passes  into  the  peaceable  stage  of 
industry  (with  wage  labour  and  cash  payment),  the  in¬ 
stinct  comes  more  effectively  into  play.  It  then  begins 
aggressively  to  shape  men’s  views  of  what  is  meritori¬ 
ous,  and  asserts  itself  at  least  as  an  auxiliary  canon  of 

self-complacency.  All  extraneous  considerations  apart, 

«> 

those  persons  (adults)  are  but  a  vanishing  minority  to¬ 
day  who  harbour  no  inclination  to  the  accomplishment  of 
some  end,  or  who  are  not  impelled  of  their  own  motion 
to  shape  some  object  or  fact  or  relation  for  human  use. 
The  propensity  may  in  large  measure  be  overborne  by 
the  more  immediately  constraining  incentive  to  a  reputa¬ 
ble  leisure  and  an  avoidance  of  indecorous  usefulness, 
and  it  may  therefore  work  itself  out  in  make-believe 
only;  as  for  instance  in  “social  duties,”  and  in  quasi- 
artistic  or  quasi-scholarly  accomplishments,  in  the  care 
and  decoration  of  the  house,  in  sewing-circle  activity  or 
dress  reform,  in  proficiency  at  dress,  cards,  yachting, 
golf,  and  various  sports.  But  the  fact  that  it  may  under 
stress  of  circumstances  eventuate  in  inanities  no  more 
disproves  the  presence  of  the  instinct  than  the  reality 
of  the  brooding  instinct  is  disproved  by  inducing  a  hen 
tosiT-em-ar  nestful  of  china  eggs. 

This  latter-day  uneasy  reaching-out  for  some  form  of 
purposeful  activity  that  shall  at  the  same  time  not  be 
indecorously  productive  of  either  individual  or  collective 
'gam  rnark^u- --difference. _of  attitude  between  the  modern 
leisure  class  and  that  of  the  quasi-peaceable  stage.  At — 


Conspicuous  Consumption 


95 


the  earlier  stage,  as  was  said  above,  the  all-dominating 
institution  of  slavery  and  status  acted  resistlessly  to  dis¬ 
countenance  exertion  directed  to  other  than  nai'vely 
predatory  ends.  It  was  still  possible  to  find  some 
habitual  employment  for  the  inclination  to  action  in  the 
way  of  forcible  aggression  or  repression  directed  against 
hostile  groups  or  against  the  subject  classes  within  the 
group;  and  this  served  to  relieve  the  pressure  and  draw 
off  the  energy  of  the  leisure  class  without  a  resort  to 
actually  useful,  or  even  ostensibly  useful  employments. 
The  practice  of  hunting  also  served  the  same  purpose  in 
some  degree.  When  the  community  developed  into  a 
peaceful  industrial  organisation,  and  when  fuller  occu¬ 
pation  of  the  land  had  reduced  the  opportunities  for  the 
hunt  to  an  inconsiderable  residue,  the  pressure  of  energy 
seeking  purposeful  employment  was  left  to  find  an  out¬ 
let  in  some  other  direction.  The  ignominy  which  at¬ 
taches  to  useful  effort  also  entered  upon  a  less  acute 
phase  with  the  disappearance  of  compulsory  labour ; 
and  the  instinct  of  workmanship  then  came  to  assert 
itself  with  more  persistence  and  consistency. 

The  line  of  least  resistance  has  changed  in  some 
measure,  and  the  energy  which  formerly  found  a  vent 
in  predatory  activity,  now  in  part  takes  the  direction 
of  some  ostensibly  useful  end.  _ jDste.nsibly  purposeless 
leisure  has  come  to  be  deprecated,  especially  among 
that  large  portion  of  the  leisure  class  whose  plebeian 
origin  acts  to  set  them  at  variance  with  the  tradition 
of  the  otium  cum  dignitate.  But  that  canon  of  reputa¬ 
bility  which  discountenances  all  employment  that  is  of 
the  nature  of  productive  effort  is  still  at  hand,  and  will 


96 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


permit  nothing  beyond  the  most  transient  vogue  to  any 
employment  that  is  substantially  useful  or  productive. 
The  consequence  is  that  a  change  has  been  wrought  in 
the  conspicuous  leisure  practised  by  the  leisure  class ; 
not  so  much„ui^ul^^>ee~as4«ri£umi.  A  reconciliation 
'"between  the  two  conflicting  requirements  is  effected  by 
a  resort  to  make-believe.  Many  and  intricate  polite 
observances  and  social  duties  of  a  ceremonial  nature 
are  developed  ;  many  organisations  are  founded,  with 
some  specious  object  of  amelioration  embodied  in  their 
official  style  and  title ;  there  is  much  coming  and  going, 
and  a  deal  of  talk,  To  the  end  that  the  talkers  may 
not  have  occasion  to  reflect  on  what  is  the  effectual 
economic  value  of  their  traffic.  And  along  with  the 
make-believe  of  purposeful  employment,  and  woven  in¬ 
extricably  into  its  texture,  there  is  commonly,  if  not 
invariably,  a  more  or  less  appreciable  element  of  pur¬ 
poseful  effort  directed  to  some  serious  end. 

In  the  narrower  sphere  of  vicarious  leisure  a  similar 
change  has  gone  forward.  Instead  of  simply  passing 
her  time  in  visible  idleness,  as  in  the  best  days  of  the 
patriarchal  regime,  the  housewife  of  the  advanced  peace¬ 
able  stage  applies  herself  assiduously  to  household  cares. 
The  salient  features  of  this  development  of  domestic 
service  have  already  been  indicated. 

Throughout  the  entire  evolution  of  conspicuous  ex¬ 
penditure,  whether  of  goods  or  of  services  or  human 
life,  runs  the  obvious  implication  that  in  order  to  effect¬ 
ually  mend  the  consumer’s  good  fame  it  must  be  an 
expenditure  of  superfluities.  In  order  to  be  reputable 
it  must  be  wasteful.  No  merit  would  accrue  from  the 


Conspicuous  Consumption 


97 


consumption  of  the  bare  necessaries  of  life,  except  by 
comparison  with  the  abjectly  poor  who  fall  short  even 
of  the  subsistence  minimum  ;  and  no  standard  of  ex¬ 
penditure  could  result  from  such  a  comparison,  except 
the  most  prosaic  and  unattractive  level  of  decency.  A 
standard  of  life  would  still  be  possible  which  should 
admit  of  invidious  comparison  in  other  respects  than 
/  that  of  opulence ;  as,  for  instance,  a  comparison  in  vari¬ 
ous  directions  in  the  manifestation  of  moral,  physical, 
intellectual,  or  aesthetic  force.  Comparison  in  all  these 
directions  is  in  vogue  to-day  ;  and  the  comparison  made 
in  these  respects  is  commonly  so  inextricably  bound  up 
with  the  pecuniary  comparison  as  to  be  scarcely  distin¬ 
guishable  from  the  latter.  This  is  especially  true  as 
regards  the  current  rating  of  expressions  of  intellectual 
and  aesthetic  force  or  proficiency ;  so  that  we  frequently 
interpret  as  aesthetic  or  intellectual  a  difference  which 
in  substance  is  pecuniary  only. 


The  use  of  the  term  “waste”  is  in  one  respect  an 
unfortunate  one.  As  used  in  the  speech  of  everyday 
life  the  word  carries  an  undertone  of  deprecation. 
It  is  here  used  for  want  of  a  better  term  that  will 
adequately  describe  the  same  range  of  motives  and  of 
phenomena,  and  it  is  not  to  be  taken  in  an  odious  sense, 
as  implying  an  illegitimate  expenditure  of  human  prod¬ 
ucts  or  of  human  life.  In  the  view  of  economic  theory 
the  expenditure  in  question  is  no  more  and  no  less 
legitimate  than  any  other  expenditure.  ItJ^J^erq-caTed- 
“  waste  ”  because  this  expenditure  does  not  serve  human 
re  or  human  wellTiemgnan  the  whole,  not  because  it  is 


98 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


waste  or  misdirection  of  effort  or  expenditure  as  viewed 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  individual  consumer  who 
chooses  it.  If  he  chooses  it,  that  disposes  of  the  ques¬ 
tion  of  its  relative  utility  to  him,  as  compared  with 
other  forms  of  consumption  that  would  not  be  depre¬ 
cated  on  account  of  their  wastefulness.  Whatever  form 
of  expenditure  the  consumer  chooses,  or  whatever  end 
he  seeks  in  making  his  choice,  has  utility  to  him  by 
virtue  of  his  preference.  As  seen  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  individual  consumer,  the  question  of  waste¬ 
fulness  does  not  arise  within  the  scope  of  economic 
theory  proper.  The  use  of  the  word  “waste”  as  a 
technical  term,  therefore,  implies  no  deprecation  of  the 
motives  or  of  the  ends  sought  by  the  consumer  under 
this  canon  of  conspicuous  waste. 

But  it  is,  on  other  grounds,  worth  noting  that  the 
term  “  waste  ”  in  the  language  of  everyday  life  implies 
deprecation  of  what  is  characterised  as  wasteful.  This 
common-sense  implication  is  itself  an  outcroppijag^of 
the  instinct  of  workmanship.  The  popular  reproba- 
..tion  of  waste  goes  to  say  that  in  order  to  be  at  peace 
with  himself  the  common  man  must  be  able  to  see  in 
any  and  all  human  effort  and  human  enjoyment  an 
enhancement  of  life  and  well-being  on  the  whole.  In 
order  to  meet  with  unqualified  approval,  any  eco¬ 
nomic  fact  must  approve  itself  under  the  test  of  imper¬ 
sonal  usefulness  —  usefulness  as  seen  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  generically  human.  Relative  or  com¬ 
petitive  advantage  of  one  individual  in  comparison  with 
another  does  not  satisfy  the  economic  conscience,  and 
therefore  competitive  expenditure  has  not  the  approval 
of  this  conscience. 


Conspicuous  Consumption 


99 


In  strict  accuracy  nothing  should  be  included  under 
the  head  of  conspicuous  waste  but  such  expenditure  as 
is  incurred  on  the 'groimd  "of  an  invidious  pecuniary 
'"'^—coiirpa r is o n .  But  in  order  to  bring  any  given  item  or 
element  in  under  this  head  it  is  not  necessary  that  it 
should  be  recognised  as  waste  in  this  sense  by  the  per¬ 
son  incurring  the  expenditure.  It  frequently  happens 
that  an  element  of  the  standard  of  living  which  set  out 
with  being  primarily  wasteful,  ends  with  becoming,  in 
the  apprehension  of  the  consumer,  a  necessary  of  life; 
and  it  may  in  this  way  become  as  indispensable  as  any 
other  item  of  the  consumer’s  habitual  expenditure.  As 
items  which  sometimes  fall  under  this  head,  and  are 
therefore  available  as  illustrations  of  the  manner  in 
which  this  principle  applies,  may  be  cited  carpets  and 
tapestries,  silver  table  service,  waiter’s  services,  silk 
hats,  starched  linen,  many  articles  of  jewellery  and  of 
dress.  The  indispensability  of  these  things  after  the 
habit  and  the  convention  have  been  formed,  however, 
has  little  to  say  in  the  classification  of  expenditures  as 
waste  or  not  waste  in  the  technical  meaning  of  the 
word.  The  test  to  which  all  expenditure  must  be 
brought  in  an  attempt  to  decide  that  point  is  the  ques¬ 
tion  whether  it  serves  directly  to  enhance  human  life 
on  the  whole  —  whether  it  furthers  the  life  process 
taken  impersonally.  For  this  is  the  basis  of  award  of 
the  instinct  of  workmanship,  and  that  instinct  is  the 
court  of  final  appeal  in  any  question  of  economic  truth 
.  or  adequacy.  It  is  a  question  as  to  the  award  rendered 
by  a  dispassionate  common  sense.  The  question  is, 
therefore,  not  whether,  under  the  existing  circum- 


ioo  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

stances  of  individual  habit  and  social  custom,  a  given 
expenditure  conduces  to  the  particular  consumer’s  grati¬ 
fication  or  peace  of  mind;  but  whether,  aside  from 
acquired  tastes  and  from  the  canons  of  usage  and  con¬ 
ventional  decency,  its  result  is  a  net  gain  in  comfort  or 
in  the  fulness  of  life.  Customary  expenditure  must  be 
classed  under  the  head  of  waste  in  so  far  as  the  custom 
on  which  it  rests  is  traceable  to  the  habit  of  making  an 
invidious  pecuniary  comparison  —  in  so  far  as  it  is  con¬ 
ceived  that  it  could  not  have  become  customary  and 
prescriptive  without  the  backing  of  this  principle  of 
pecuniary  reputability  or  relative  economic  success. 

It  is  obviously  not  necessary  that  a  given  object  of 
expenditure  should  be  exclusively  wasteful  in  order  to 
come  in  under  the  category  of  conspicuous  waste.  An 
article  may  be  useful  and  wasteful  both,  and  its  utility 
to  the  consumer  may  be  made  up  of  use  and  waste  in  the 
most  varying  proportions.  Consumable  goods,  and  even 
productive  goods,  generally  show  the  two  elements  in 
combination,  as  constituents  of  their  utility;  although, 
in  a  general  way,  the  element  of  waste  tends  to  pre¬ 
dominate  in  articles  of  consumption,  while  the  contrary 
is  true  of  articles  designed  for  productive  use.  Eyen 
in  articles  which  appear  at  first  glance  to  serve  for  purq 
ostentation  only,  it  is  always  possible  to  detect  the 
presence  of  some,  at  least  ostensible,  useful  purpose^, 
and  on  the  other  hand,  even  in  special  machinery  and 
tools  contrived  for  some  particular  industrial  process, 
as  well  as  in  the  rudest  appliances  of  human  industry, 
the  traces  of  conspicuous  waste,  or  at  least  of  the  habit 
of  ostentation,  usually  become  evident  on  a  close  scru- 


Consp  i cuous  Cons  it  mption 


IOI 


tiny.  It  would  be  hazardous  to  assert  that  a  useful 
purpose  is  ever  absent  from  the  utility  of  any  article  or 
of  any  service,  however  obviously  its  prime  purpose  and 
chief  element  is  conspicuous  waste;  and  it  would  be 
only  less  hazardous  to  assert  of  any  primarily  useful 
product  that  the  element  of  waste  is  in  no  way  con¬ 
cerned  in  its  value,  immediately  or  remotely. 


CHAPTER  V 


The  Pecuniary  Standard  of  Living 

I  For  the  great  body  of  the  people  in  any  modern 
community,  the  proximate  ground  of  expenditure  in 
excess  of  what  is  required  for  physical  comfort  is  not 
a  conscious  effort  to  excel  in  the  expensiveness  of 
their  visible  consumption,  so  much  as  it  is  a  desire 
to  live  up  to  the  conventional  standard  of  decency  in 
\  the  amount  and  grade  of  goods  consumed.  This  de¬ 
sire  is  not  guided  by  a  rigidly  invariable  standard, 
which  must  be  lived  up  to,  and  beyond  which  there 
is  no  incentive  to  go.  The  standard  is  flexible ;  and 
especially  it  is  indefinitely  extensible,  if  only  time  is 
allowed  for  habituation  to  any  increase  in  pecuniary 
ability  and  for  acquiring  facility  in  the  new  and 
larger  scale  of  expenditure  that  follows  such  an  in¬ 
crease.  It  is  much  more  difficult  to  recede  from  a 
scale  of  expenditure  once  adopted  than  it  is  to  ex¬ 
tend  the  accustomed  scale  in  response  to  an  accession 
A  of  wealth.  Many  items  of  customary  expenditure  prove 
on  analysis  to  be  almost  purely  wasteful,  and  they  are 
therefore  honorific  only,  but  after  they  have  once  been 
incorporated  into  the  scale  of  decent  consumption,  and  so 
have  become  an  integral  part  of  one’s  scheme  of  life,  it 
,  is  quite  as  hard  to  give  up  these  as  it  is  to  give  up  many 


102 


The  Pec7iniary  Standard  of  Living  103 

items  that  conduce  directly  to  one’s  physical  comfort,  or 
even  that  may  be  necessary  to  life  and  health.  That  is 
to  say,  the  conspicuously  wasteful  honorific  expenditure 
that  confers  spiritual  well-being  may  become  more  in¬ 
dispensable  than  much  of  that  expenditure  which  min¬ 
isters  to  the  ‘Tower”  wants  of  physical  well-being  or 
sustenance  only.  It  is  notoriously  just  as  difficult  to 
recede  from  a  “high”  standard  of  living  as  it  is  to 
lower  a  standard  which  is  already  relatively  low ;  al¬ 
though  in  the  former  case  the  difficulty  is  a  moral  one, 
while  in  the  latter  it  may  involve  a  material  deduction 
from  the  physical  comforts  of  life. 

But  while  retrogression  is  difficult,  a  fresh  advance 
in  conspicuous  expenditure  is  relatively  easy ;  indeed, 
it  takes  place  almost  as  a  matter  of  course.  In  the  rare 
cases  where  it  occurs,  a  failure  to  increase  one’s  visible 
consumption  when  the  means  for  an  increase  are  at 
hand  is  felt  in  popular  apprehension  to  call  for  explana¬ 
tion,  and  unworthy  motives  of  miserliness  are  imputed 
to  those  who  fall  short  in  this  respect.  A  prompt  re¬ 
sponse  to  the  stimulus,  on  the  other  hand,  is  accepted 
as  the  normal  effect.  This  suggests  that  the  standard 
of  expenditure  which  commonly  guides  our  efforts  is 
not  the  average,  ordinary  expenditure  already  achieved ; 
it  is  an  ideal  of  consumption  that  lies  just  beyond  our 
*1  reach,  or  to  reach  which  requires  some  strain.  The 
motive  is  emulation  —  the  stimulus  of  an  invidious  com- 
.  parison  which  prompts  us  to  outdo  those  with  whom  we 
|  are  in  the  habit  of  classing  ourselves.  Substantially  the 
same  proposition  is  expressed  in  the  commonplace  re¬ 
mark  that  each  class  envies  and  emulates  the  class  next 


104  77^  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

above  it  in  the  social  scale,  while  it  rarely  compares 
itself  with  those  below  or  with  those  who  are  consider¬ 
ably  in  advance.  That  is  to  say,  in  other  words,  our 
standard  of  decency  in  expenditure,  as  in  other  ends  of 
emulation,  is  set  by  the  usage  of  those  next  above  us 
in  reputability ;  until,  in  this  way,  especially  in  any 
community  where  class  distinctions  are  somewhat  vague, 
all  canons  of  reputability  and  decency,  and  all  standards 
of  consumption,  are  traced  back  by  insensible  grada¬ 
tions  to  the  usages  and  habits  of  thought  of  the  highest 
social  and  pecuniary  class  —  the  wealthy  leisure  class. 

It  is  for  this  class  to  determine,  in  general  outline, 
what  scheme  of  life  the  community  shall  accept  as 
decent  or  honorific ;  and  it  is  their  office  by  precept 
and  example  to  set  forth  this  scheme  of  social  salvation 
in  its  highest,  ideal  form.  But  the  higher  leisure  class 
can  exercise  this  quasi-sacerdotal  office  only  under  cer¬ 
tain  material  limitations.  The  class  cannot  at  discre¬ 
tion  effect  a  sudden  revolution  or  reversal  of  the  popular 
habits  of  thought  with  respect  to  any  of  these  ceremo¬ 
nial  requirements.  It  takes  time  for  any  change  to  per¬ 
meate  the  mass  and  change  the  habitual  attitude  of  the 
people  ;  and  especially  it  takes  time  to  change  the  habits 
of  those  classes  that  are  socially  more  remote  from  the 
radiant  body.  The  process  is  slower  where  the  mobility 
of  the  population  is  less  or  where  the  intervals  between 
the  several  classes  are  wider  and  more  abrupt.  But  if 
time  be  allowed,  the  scope  of  the  discretion  of  the  lei¬ 
sure  class  as  regards  questions  of  form  and  detail  in  the 
community’s  scheme  of  life  is  large  ;  while  as  regards 
the  substantial  principles  of  reputability,  the  changes 


The  Pecuniary  Standard  of  Living 


105 


which  it  can  effect  lie  within  a  narrow  margin  of  toler¬ 
ance.  Its  example  and  precept  carries  the  force  of  pre¬ 
scription  for  all  classes  below  it ;  but  in  working  out  the 
precepts  which  are  handed  down  as  governing  the  form 
and  method  of  reputability  —  in  shaping  the  usages  and 
the  spiritual  attitude  of  the  lower  classes  — this  author¬ 
itative  prescription  constantly  works  under  the  selective 
guidance  of  the  canon  of  conspicuous  waste,  tempered 
in  varying  degree  by  the  instinct  of  workmanship.  To 
these  norms  is  to  be  added  another  broad  principle  of 
human  nature  —  the  predatory  animus  —  which  in  point 
of  generality  and  of  psychological  content  lies  between 
the  two  just  named.  The  effect  of  the  latter  in  shaping 
the  accepted  scheme  of  life  is  yet  to  be  discussed. 

The  canon  of  reputability,  then,  must  adapt  itself  to 
the  economic  circumstances,  the  traditions,  and  the 
degree  of  spiritual  maturity  of  the  particular  class 
whose  scheme  of  life  it  is  to  regulate.  It  is  especially 
to  be  noted  that  however  high  its  authority  and  how¬ 
ever  true  to  the  fundamental  requirements  of  reputa¬ 
bility  it  may  have  been  at  its  inception,  a  specific 
formal  observance  can  under  no  circumstances  maintain 
itself  in  force  if  with  the  lapse  of  time  or  on  its  trans¬ 
mission  to  a  lower  pecuniary  class  it  is  found  to  run 
counter  to  the  ultimate  ground  of  decency  among  civil¬ 
ised  peoples,  namely,  serviceability  for  the  purpose  of 
an  invidious  comparison  in  pecuniary  success. 

It  is  evident  that  these  canons  of  expenditure  have 
much  to  say  in  determining  the  standard  of  living 
for  any  community  and  for  any  class.  It  is  no  less 
\\  evident  that  the  standard  of  living  which  prevails  at 


io  6 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


any  time  or  at  any  given  social  altitude  will  in  its  turn 
have  much  to  say  as  to  the  forms  which  honorific  ex¬ 
penditure  will  take,  and  as  to  the  degree  to  which  this 
“higher”  need  will  dominate  a  people’s  consumption. 
In  this  respect  the  control  exerted  by  the  accepted 
standard  of  living  is  chiefly  of  a  negative  character ; 
it  acts  almost  solely  to  prevent  recession  from  a  scale 
of  conspicuous  expenditure  that  has  once  become 
habitual. 

A  standard  of  living  is  of  the  nature  of  habit.  It 


is  an  habitual  scale  and  method  of  responding  to  given 
stimuli.  The  difficulty  in  the  way  of  receding  from 
an  accustomed  standard  is  the  difficulty  of  breaking 
a  habit  that  has  once  been  formed.  The  relative  facil¬ 
ity  with  which  an  advance  in  the  standard  is  made 
means  that  the  life  process  is  a  process  of  unfolding 
activity  and  that  it  will  readily  unfold  in  a  new  direction 
whenever  and  wherever  the  resistance  to  self-expression 
decreases.  But  when  the  habit  of  expression  along  such 
a  given  line  of  low  resistance  has  once  been  formed,  the 
discharge  will  seek  the  accustomed  outlet  even  after 
a  change  has  taken  place  in  the  environment  whereby 
the  external  resistance  has  appreciably  risen.  That 
heightened  facility  of  expression  in  a  given  direction 
which  is  called  habit  may  offset  a  considerable  increase 
in  the  resistance  offered  by  external  circumstances  to 
the  unfolding  of  life  in  the  given  direction.  As  between 
the  various  habits,  or  habitual  modes  and  directions  of 
expression,  which  go  to  make  up  an  individual’s  standard 
of  living,  there  is  an  appreciable  difference  in  point 
of  persistence  under  counteracting  circumstances  and 


The  Pecuniary  Standard  of  Living 


107 


1 


I 

\ 

i 

) 


in  point  of  the  degree  of  imperativeness  with  which 
the  discharge  seeks  a  given  direction. 

That  is  to  say,  in  the  language  of  current  economic 
theory,  while  men  are  reluctant  to  retrench  their  ex¬ 
penditures  in  any  direction,  they  are  more  reluctant 
to  retrench  in  some  directions  than  in  others  ;  so  that 
while  any  accustomed  consumption  is  reluctantly  given 
up,  there  are  certain  lines  of  consumption  which  are 
given  up  with  relatively  extreme  reluctance.  The  arti¬ 
cles  or  forms  of  consumption  to  which  the  consumer 
clings  with  the  greatest  tenacity  are  commonly  the 
so-called  necessaries  of  life,  or  the  subsistence  mini¬ 
mum.  The  subsistence  minimum  is  of  course  not 
a  rigidly  determined  allowance  oF  goods,  definite  and 
invariable  in  kind  and  quantity ;  but  for  the  purpose 
in  hand  it  may  be  taken  to  comprise  a  certain,  more 
ojyless_definite,  aggregate_of  consumptiQri^reqqired_iQr 
the  maintenance  of  life.  This  minimum,  it  may  be 
assumed,  is  ordinarily  given  up  last  in  case  of  a  progres¬ 
sive  retrenchment  of  expenditure.  That  is  to  say,  in 
a  general  way,  the  most  ancient  and  ingrained  of  the 
habits  which  govern  the  individual’s  life  —  those  habits 
[that  touch  his  existence  as  an  organism  —  are  the  most 
'persistent  and  imperative.  Beyond  these  come  the 
higher  wants — later-formed  habits  of  the  individual 
or  the  race  —  in  a  somewhat  irregular  and  by  no  means 
invariable  gradation.  Some  of  these  higher  wants,  as 
for  instance  the  habitual  use  of  certain  stimulants,  or 
the  need  of  salvation  (in  the  eschatological  sense),  or  of 
good  repute,  may  in  some  cases  take  precedence  of  the 
lower  or  more  elementary  wants.  In  general,  the 


108  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

longer  the  habituation,  the  more  unbroken  the  habit, 
and  the  more  nearly  it  coincides  with  previous  habitual 
forms  of  the  life  process,  the  more  persistently  will  the 
given  habit  assert  itself.  The  habit  will  be  stronger 
if  the  particular  traits  of  human  nature  which  its  action 
involves,  or  the  particular  aptitudes  that  find  exercise 
in  it,  are  traits  or  aptitudes  that  are  already  largely  and 
profoundly  concerned  in  the  life  process  or  that  are 
intimately  bound  up  with  the  life  history  of  the  par¬ 
ticular  racial  stock. 

The  varying  degrees  of  ease  with  which  different 
habits  are  formed  by  different  persons,  as  well  as  the 
varying  degrees  of  reluctance  with  which  different 
habits  are  given  up,  goes  to  say  that  the  formation  of 
specific  habits  is  not  a  matter  of  length  of  habituation 
simply.  Inherited  aptitudes  and  traits  of  temperament 
count  for  quite  as  much  as  length  of  habituation  in  de¬ 
ciding  what  range  of  habits  will  come  to  dominate  any 
individual’s  scheme  of  life.  And  the  prevalent  type  of 
transmitted  aptitudes,  or  in  other  words  the  type  of 
temperament  belonging  to  the  dominant  ethnic  element 
in  any  community,  will  go  far  to  decide  what  will  be 
the  scope  and  form  of  expression  of  the  community’s 
habitual  life  process.  How  greatly  the  transmitted 
idiosyncracies  of  aptitude  may  count  in  the  way  of  a 
rapid  and  definitive  formation  of  habit  in  individuals  is 
illustrated  by  the  extreme  facility  with  which  an  all- 
dominating  habit  of  alcoholism  is  sometimes  formed  ; 
or  in  the  similar  facility  and  the  similarly  inevitable 
formation  of  a  habit  of  devout  observances  in  the  case 
of  persons  gifted  with  a  special  aptitude  in  that  direc- 


The  Pecuniary  Standard  of  Living  109 

/ 

tion.  Much  the  same  meaning  attaches  to  that  pecul¬ 
iar  facility  of  habituation  to  a  specific  human  environ¬ 
ment  that  is  called  romantic  love. 

Men  differ  in  respect  of  transmitted  aptitudes,  or  in 
respect  of  the  relative  facility  with  which  they  unfold 
their  life  activity  in  particular  directions ;  and  the 
habits  which  coincide  with  or  proceed  upon  a  relatively 
strong  specific  aptitude  or  a  relatively  great  specific 
facility  of  expression  become  of  great  consequence  to 
the  man’s  well-being.  The  part  played  by  this  element 
of  aptitude  in  determining  the  relative  tenacity  of  the 
several  habits  which  constitute  the  standard  of  living 
goes  to  explain  the  extreme  reluctance  with  which  men 
give  up  any  habitual  expenditure  in  the  way  of  con¬ 
spicuous  consumption.  The  aptitudes  or  propensities 
to  which  a  habit  of  this  kind  is  to  be  referred  as  its 
ground  are  those  aptitudes  whose  exercise  is  comprised 
in  emulation  ;  and  the  propensity  for  emulation  —  for 
invidious  comparison  —  is  of  ancient  growth  and  is  a 
pervading  trait  of  human  nature.  It  is  easily  called 
into  vigorous  activity  in  any  new  form,  and  it  asserts 
itself  with  great  insistence  under  any  form  under  which 
it  has  once  found  habitual  expression.  When  the  indi¬ 
vidual  has  once  formed  the  habit  of  seeking  expression 
in  a  given  line  of  honorific  expenditure,  — when  a  given 
set  of  stimuli  have  come  to  be  habitually  responded  to 
in  activity  of  a  given  kind  and  direction  under  the  guid¬ 
ance  of  these  alert  and  deep-reaching  propensities  of 
emulation,  —  it  is  with  extreme  reluctance  that  such  an 
habitual  expenditure  is  given  up.  And  on  the  other 
hand,  whenever  an  accession  of  pecuniary  strength  puts 


iio  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

the  individual  in  a  position  to  unfold  his  life  process  in 
larger  scope  and  with  additional  reach,  the  ancient  pro¬ 
pensities  of  the  race  will  assert  themselves  in  determin¬ 
ing  the  direction  which  the  new  unfolding  of  life  is  to 
take.  And  those  propensities  which  are  already  actively 
in  the  field  under  some  related  form  of  expression,  which 
are  aided  by  the  pointed  suggestions  afforded  by  a  cur¬ 
rent  accredited  scheme  of  life,  and  for  the  exercise  of 
which  the  material  means  and  opportunities  are  readily 
available, — these  will  especially  have  much  to  say  in 
shaping  the  form  and  direction  in  which  the  new  acces¬ 
sion  to  the  individual’s  aggregate  force  will  assert  itself. 
That  is  to  say,  in  concrete  terms,  in  any  community 
where  conspicuous  consumption  is  an  element  of  the 
scheme  of  life,  an  increase  in  an  individual’s  ability  to 
pay  is  likely  to  take  the  form  of  an  expenditure  for  some 
accredited  line  of  conspicuous  consumption. 

With  the  exception  of  the  instinct  of  self-preservation, 
the  propensity  for  emulation  is  probably  the  strongest 
and  most  alert  and  persistent  of  the  economic  motives 
proper.  In  an  industrial  community  this  propensity  for 
emulation  expresses  itself  in  pecuniary  emulation  ;  and 
this,  so  far  as  regards  the  Western  civilised  communities 
of  the  present,  is  virtually  equivalent  to  saying  that  it 
expresses  itself  in  some  form  of  conspicuous  waste. 
'The  need  of  conspicuous  waste,  therefore,  stands  ready 
to  absorb  any  increase  in  the  community’s  industrial 
efficiency  or  output  of  goods,  after  the  most  elementary 
physical  wants  have  been  provided  for.  Where  this 
result  does  not  follow,  under  modern  conditions,  the 
reason  for  the  discrepancy  is  commonly  to  be  sought  in 


The  Pecuniary  Standard  of  Living  in 

a  rate  of  increase  in  the  individual’s  wealth  too  rapid 
for  the  habit  of  expenditure  to  keep  abreast  of  it  ;  or  it 
may  be  that  the  individual  in  question  defers  the  con¬ 
spicuous  consumption  of  the  increment  to  a  later  date 
—  ordinarily  with  a  view  to  heightening  the  spectacular 
effect  of  the  aggregate  expenditure  contemplated. As 
increased  industrial  efficiency  makes  it  possible  to  pro¬ 
cure  the  means  of  livelihood  with  less  labour,  the  ener¬ 
gies  of  the  industrious  members  of  the  community  are 
bent  to  the  compassing  of  a  higher  result  in  conspicu¬ 
ous  expenditure,  rather  than  slackened  to  a  more  com¬ 
fortable  pace.  The  strain  is  not  lightened  as  industrial 
efficiency  increases  and  makes  a  lighter  strain  possible, 
but  the  increment  of  output  is  turned  to  use  to  meet 
this  want,  which  is  indefinitely  expansible,  after  the 
manner  commonly  imputed  in  economic  theory  to  higher 
or  spiritual  wants.  It  is  owing  chiefly  to  the  presence 
of  this  element  in  the  standard  of  living  that  J.  S.  Mill 
was  able  to  say  that  “  hitherto  it  is  questionable  if  all 
the  mechanical  inventions  yet  made  have  lightened  the 
day’s  toil  of  any  human  being.” 

The  accepted  standard  of  expenditure  in  the  com¬ 
munity  or  in  the  class  to  which  a  person  belongs 
largely  determines  what  his  standard  of  living  will  be. 

9 

It  does  this  directly  by  commending  itself  to  his  com¬ 
mon  sense  as  right  and  good,  through  his  habitually 
contemplating  it  and  assimilating  the  scheme  of  life  in 
which  it  belongs  ;  but  it  does  so  also  indirectly  through 
popular  insistence  on  conformity  to  the  accepted  scale 
of  expenditure  as  a  matter  of  propriety,  under  pain  of 
disesteem  and  ostracism.  To  accept  and  practise  the 


1 12  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

standard  of  living  which  is  in  vogue  is  both  agreeable 
and  expedient,  commonly  to  the  point  of  being  indis¬ 
pensable  to  personal  comfort  and  to  success  in  life. 
The  standard  of  living  of  any  class,  so  far  as  concerns 
the  element  of  conspicuous  waste,  is  commonly  as  high 
as  the  earning  capacity  of  the  class  will  permit  —  with 

i  a  constant  tendency  to  go  higher.  The  effect  upon  the 
serious  activities  of  men  is  therefore  to  direct  them  with 
great  singleness  of  purpose  to  the  largest  possible  acqui¬ 
sition  of  wealth,  and  to  discountenance  work  that  brings 
no  pecuniary  gain.  At  the  same  time  the  effect  on 
consumption  is  to  concentrate  it  upon  the  lines  which 
are  most  patent  to  the  observers  whose  good  opinion  is 
sought ;  while  the  inclinations  and  aptitudes  whose  exer¬ 
cise  does  not  involve  a  honorific  expenditure  of  time  or 
substance  tend  to  fall  into  abeyance  through  disuse. 

Through  this  discrimination  in  favour  of  visible  con¬ 
sumption  it  has  come  about  that  the  domestic  life  of 
most  classes  is  relatively  shabby,  as  compared  with  the 
eclat  of  that  overt  portion  of  their  life  that  is  carried  on 
before  the  eyes  of  observers.  As  a  secondary  conse- 
quence  of  the  same  discrimination,  people  habitually 
screen  their  private  life  from  observation.  So  far' as 
concerns  that  portion  of  their  consumption  that  may 
without  blame  be  carried  on  in  secret,  they  withdraw 
from  all  contact  with  their  neighbours.  Hence  the 
exclusiveness  of  people,  as  regards  their  domestic 
life,  in  most  of  the  industrially  developed  communi¬ 
ties  ;  and  hence,  by  remoter  derivation,  the  habit  of 
privacy  and  reserve  that  is  so  large  a  feature  in  the 
code  of  proprieties  of  the  better  classes  in  all  commu- 

\ 


The  Pecuniary  Standard  of  Living  113 


nities.  The  low  birthrate  of  the  classes  upon  whom 
the  requirements  of  reputable  expenditure  fall  with 
great  urgency  is  likewise  traceable  to  the  exigen- 
\  cies  of  a  standard  of  living  based  on  conspicuous  waste. 
/  The  conspicuous  consumption,  and  the  consequent  in¬ 
creased  expense,  required  in  the  reputable  maintenance 
of  a  child  is  very  considerable  and  acts  as  a  powerful 
determent.  It  is  probably  the  most  effectual  of  the 
I  Malthusian  prudential  checks. 

The  effect  of  this  factor  of  the  standard  of  living,  both 


I 


1 


in  the  way  of  retrenchment  in  the  obscurer  elements  of 
consumption  that  go  to  physical  comfort  and  mainte¬ 
nance,  and  also  in  the  paucity  or  absence  of  children,  is 
perhaps  seen  at  its  best  among  the  classes  given  to 
scholarly  pursuits.  Because  of  a  presumed  superiority 
and  scarcity  of  the  gifts  and  attainments  that  character¬ 
ise  their  life,  these  classes  are  by  convention  subsumed 
under  a  higher  social  grade  than  their  pecuniary  grade 
should  warrant.  The  scale  of  decent  expenditure  in 
their  case  is  pitched  correspondingly  high,  and  it 
consequently  leaves  an  exceptionally  narrow  margin 
disposable  for  the  other  ends  of  life.  By  force  of  cir¬ 
cumstances,  their  own  habitual  sense  of  what  is  good 
and  right  in  these  matters,  as  well  as  the  expectations  of 
the  community  in  the  way  of  pecuniary  decency  among 
the  learned,  are  excessively  high  —  as  measured  by  the 
prevalent  degree  of  opulence  and  earning  capacity  of 
the  class,  relatively  to  the  non-scholarly  classes  whose 
social  equals  they  nominally  are.  In  any  modern  com¬ 
munity  where  there  is  no  priestly  monopoly  of  these 
occupations,  the  people  of  scholarly  pursuits  are  un- 


1 


1 14  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  C/ass 

avoidably  thrown  into  contact  with  classes  that  are 
pecuniarily  their  superiors.  The  high  standard  of  pecu¬ 
niary  decency  in  force  among  these  superior  classes  is 
transfused  among  the  scholarly  classes  with  but  little 
mitigation  of  its  rigour ;  and  as  a  consequence  there  is 
no  class  of  the  community  that  spends  a  larger  propor¬ 
tion  of  its  substance  in  conspicuous  waste  than  these. 


CHAPTER  VI 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 

The  caution  has  already  been  repeated  more  than 
once,  that  while  the  regulating  norm  of  consumption  is 
in  large  part  the  requirement  of  conspicuous  waste,  it 
must  not  be  understood  that  the  motive  on  which  the 
consumer  acts  in  any  given  case  is  this  principle  in  its 
bald,  unsophisticated  form.  Ordinarily  his  motive  is  a 
wish  to  conform  to  established  usage,  to  avoid  unfavour¬ 
able  notice  and  comment,  to  live  up  to  the  accepted 
canons  of  decency  in  the  kind,  amount,  and  grade  of 
goods  consumed,  as  well  as  in  the  decorous  employment 
of  his  time  and  effort.  In  the  common  run  of  cases 
this  sense  of  prescriptive  usage  is  present  in  the  motives 
of  the  consumer  and  exerts  a  direct  constraining  force, 
especially  as  regards  consumption  carried  on  before 
the  eyes  of  observers.  But  a  considerable  element  of 
prescriptive  expensiveness  is  observable  also  in  con¬ 
sumption  that  does  not  in  any  appreciable  degree  be¬ 
come  known  to  outsiders — as,  for  instance,  articles  of 
underclothing,  some  articles  of  food,  kitchen  utensils, 
and  other  household  apparatus  designed  for  service  rather 
than  for  evidence.  In  all  sudT  useful  articles  aclose 
scrutiny  will  discover  certain  features  which  add  to  the 
cost  and  enhance  the  commercial  value  of  the  goods  in 

”5 


ii  6  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

question,  but  do  not  proportionately  increase  the  service¬ 
ability  of  these  articles  for  the  material  purposes  which 
alone  they  ostensibly  are  designed  to  serve. 

Under  the  selective  surveillance  of  the  law  of  con¬ 
spicuous  waste  there  grows  up  a  code  of  accredited 
canons  of  consumption,  the  effect  of  which  is  to  hold 
the  consumer  up  to  a  standard  of  expensiveness  and 
wastefulness  in  his  consumption  of  goods  and  in  his  em¬ 
ployment  of  time  and  effort.  This  growth  of  prescrip¬ 
tive  usage  has  an  immediate  effect  upon  economic  life, 
but  it  has  also  an  indirect  and  remoter  effect  upon  con¬ 
duct  in  other  respects  as  well.  Habits  of  thought  with 
respect  to  the  expression  of  life  in  any  given  direction 
unavoidably  affect  the  habitual  view  of  what  is  good  and 
right  in  life  in  other  directions  also.  In  the  organic 
complex  of  habits  of  thought  which  make  up  the  sub¬ 
stance  of  an  individual’s  conscious  life  the  economic 
interest  does  not  lie  isolated  and  distinct  from  all  other 
interests.  Something,  for  instance,  has  already  been 
said  of  its  relation  to  the  canons  of  reputability. 

The  principle  of  conspicuous  waste  guides  the  forma¬ 
tion  of  habits  of  thought  as  to  what  is  honest  and  repu¬ 
table  in  life  and  in  commodities.  In  so  doing,  this  prin¬ 
ciple  will  traverse  other  norms  of  conduct  which  do  not 
primarily  have  to  do  with  the  code  of  pecuniary  honour, 
but  which  have,  directly  or  incidentally,  an  economic 
significance  of  some  magnitude.  So  the  canon  of  hon¬ 
orific  waste  may,  immediately  or  remotely,  influence  the 
sense  of  duty,  the  sense  of  beauty,  the  sense  of  utility, 
the  sense  of  devotional  or  ritualistic  fitness,  and  the 
scientific  sense  of  truth. 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste  1 1 7 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  go  into  a  discussion  here 
of  the  particular  points  at  which,  or  the  particular  man¬ 
ner  in  which,  the  canon  of  honorific  expenditure  habitu¬ 
ally  traverses  the  canons  of  moral  conduct.  The  matter 
is  one  which  has  received  large  attention  and  illustration 
at  the  hands  of  those  whose  office  it  is  to  watch  and 
admonish  with  respect  to  any  departures  from  the 
accepted  code  of  morals.  In  modern  communities, 
where  the  dominant  economic  and  legal  feature  of  the 
community’s  life  is  the  institution  of  private  property, 
one  of  the  salient  features  of  the  code  of  morals  is  the 
sacredness  of  property.  There  needs  no  insistence  or 
illustration  to  gain  assent  to  the  proposition  that  the 
habit  of  holding  private  property  inviolate  is  traversed 
by  the  other  habit  of  seeking  wealth  for  the  sake  of  the 
good  repute  to  be  gained  through  its  conspicuous  con¬ 
sumption.  Most  offences  against  property,  especially 
offences  of  an  appreciable  magnitude,  come  under  this 
head.  It  is  also  a  matter  of  common  notoriety  and  by¬ 
word  that  in  offences  which  result  in  a  large  accession 
of  property  to  the  offender  he  does  not  ordinarily  incur 
the  extreme  penalty  or  the  extreme  obloquy  with  which 
his  offence  would  be  visited  on  the  ground  of  the  naive 
moral  code  alone.  The  thief  or  swindler  who  has  gained 
great  wealth  by  his  delinquency  has  a  better  chance 
than  the  small  thief  of  escaping  the  rigorous  penalty  of 
the  law ;  and  some  good  repute  accrues  to  him  from  his 
increased  wealth  and  from  his  spending  the  irregularly 
acquired  possessions  in  a  seemly  manner.  A  well-bred 
expenditure  of  his  booty  especially  appeals  with  great 
effect  to  persons  of  a  cultivated  sense  of  the  proprieties, 


1 1 8  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

arid  goes  far  to  mitigate  the  sense  of  moral  turpitude  with 
which  his  dereliction  is  viewed  by  them.  It  may  be 
noted  also  —  and  it  is  more  immediately  to  the  point  — 
that  we  are  all  inclined  to  condone  an  offence  against 
property  in  the  case  of  a  man  whose  motive  is  the 
worthy  one  of  providing  the  means  of  a  “decent”  man¬ 
ner  of  life  for  his  wife  and  children.  If  it  is  added  that 
the  wife  has  been  “  nurtured  in  the  lap  of  luxury,”  that 
is  accepted  as  an  additional  extenuating  circumstance. 
That  is  to  say,  we  are  prone  to  condone  such  an  offence 
where  its  aim  is  the  honorific  one  of  enabling  the 
offender’s  wife  to  perform  for  him  such  an  amount  of 
vicarious  consumption  of  time  and  substance  as  is  de¬ 
manded  by  the  standard  of  pecuniary  decency.  In  such 
a  case  the  habit  of  approving  the  accustomed  degree  of 
/  conspicuous  waste  traverses  the  habit  of  deprecating 
/  violations  of  ownership,  to  the  extent  even  of  sometimes 
leaving  the  award  of  praise  or  blame  uncertain.  This 
is  peculiarly  true  where  the  dereliction  involves  an 
appreciable  predatory  or  piratical  element. 

This  topic  need  scarcely  be  pursued  farther  here ; 
but  the  remark  may  not  be  out  of  place  that  all  that 
considerable  body  of  morals  that  clusters  about  the 
concept  of  an  inviolable  ownership  is  itself  a  psycho¬ 
logical  precipitate  of  the  traditional  meritoriousness  of 
wealth.  And  it  should  be  added  that  this  wealth  which 
is  held  sacred  is  valued  primarily  for  the  sake  of  the 
good  repute  to  be  got  through  its  conspicuous  con¬ 
sumption. 

The  bearing  of  pecuniary  decency  upon  the  scientific 
spirit  or  the  quest  of  knowledge  will  be  taken  up  in 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste  119 

some  detail  in  a  separate  chapter.  Also  as  regards  the 
sense  of  devout  or  ritual  merit  and  adequacy  in  this 
connection,  little  need  be  said  in  this  place.  That  topic 
will  also  come  up  incidentally  in  a  later  chapter.  Still, 
this  usage  of  honorific  expenditure  has  much  to  say  in 
shaping  popular  tastes  as  to  what  is  right  and  meritorious 
in  sacred  matters,  and  the  bearing  of  the  principle  of 
conspicuous  waste  upon  some  of  the  commonplace 
devout  observances  and  conceits  may  therefore  be 
pointed  out. 

Obviously,  the  canon  of  conspicuous  waste  is  account¬ 
able  for  a  great  portion  of  what  may  be  called  devout 
consumption ;  as,  eg.,  the  consumption  of  sacred  edifices, 
vestments,  and  other  goods  of  the  same  class.  Even  in 
those  modern  cults  to  whose  divinities  is  imputed  a  pre¬ 
dilection  for  temples  not  built  with  hands,  the  sacred 
buildings  and  the  other  properties  of  the  cult  are  con¬ 
structed  and  decorated  with  some  view  to  a  reputable 
degree  of  wasteful  expenditure.  And  it  needs  but  little, 
either  of  observation  or  introspection — and  either  will 
serve  the  turn  —  to  assure  us  that  the  expensive  splen¬ 
dour  of  the  house  of  worship  has  an  appreciable  uplifting 
and  mellowing  effect  upon  the  worshipper’s  frame  of 
mind.  It  will  serve  to  enforce  the  same  fact  if  we  re¬ 
flect  upon  the  sense  of  abject  shamefulness  with  which 
any  evidence  of  indigence  or  squalor  about  the  sacred 
place  affects  all  beholders.  The  accessories  of  any 
devout  observance  should  be  pecuniarily  above  re¬ 
proach.  This  requirement  is  imperative,  whatever  lati¬ 
tude  may  be  allowed  with  regard  to  these  accessories 
in  point  of  aesthetic  or  other  serviceability. 


120  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

It  may  also  be  in  place  to  notice  that  in  all  communi¬ 
ties,  especially  in  neighbourhoods  where  the  standard  of 
pecuniary  decency  for  dwellings  is  not  high,  the  local 
sanctuary  is  more  ornate,  more  conspicuously  wasteful  in 
its  architecture  and  decoration,  than  the  dwelling-houses 
of  the  congregation.  This  is  true  of  nearly  all  denomi¬ 
nations  and  cults,  whether  Christian  or  Pagan,  but  it  is 
true  in  a  peculiar  degree  of  the  older  and  maturer  cults. 
At  the  same  time  the  sanctuary  commonly  contributes 
little  if  anything  to  the  physical  comfort  of  the  members. 
Indeed,  the  sacred  structure  not  only  serves  the  physical 
well-being  of  the  members  to  but  a  slight  extent,  as  com¬ 
pared  with  their  humbler  dwelling-houses  ;  but  it  is  felt 
by  all  men  that  a  right  and  enlightened  sense  of  the 
true,  the  beautiful,  and  the  good  demands  that  in  all 
expenditure  on  the  sanctuary  anything  that  might  serve 
the  comfort  of  the  worshipper  should  be  conspicuously 
absent.  If  any  element  of  comfort  is  admitted  in  the 
fittings  of  the  sanctuary,  it  should  at  least  be  scrupu¬ 
lously  screened  and  masked  under  an  ostensible  austerity. 
In  the  most  reputable  latter-day  houses  of  worship,  where 
no  expense  is  spared,  the  principle  of  austerity  is  carried 
to  the  length  of  making  the  fittings  of  the  place  a  means 
of  mortifying  the  flesh,  especially  in  appearance.  There 
are  few  persons  of  delicate  tastes  in  the  matter  of  devout 
consumption  to  whom  this  austerely  wasteful  discomfort 
does  not  appeal  as  intrinsically  right  and  good.  Devout 
consumption  is  of  the  nature  of  vicarious  consumption. 
This  canon  of  devout  austerity  is  based  on  the  pecuni¬ 
ary  reputability  of  conspicuously  wasteful  consumption, 
backed  by  the  principle  that  vicarious  consumption 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste  121 

should  conspicuously  not  conduce  to  the  comfort  of 
the  vicarious  consumer. 

The  sanctuary  and  its  fittings  have  something  of  this 
austerity  in  all  the  cults  in  which  the  saint  or  divinity 
to  whom  the  sanctuary  pertains  is  not  conceived  to  be 
present  and  make  personal  use  of  the  property  for  the 
gratification  of  luxurious  tastes  imputed  to  him.  The 
character  of  the  sacred  paraphernalia  is  somewhat  dif¬ 
ferent  in  this  respect  in  those  cults  where  the  habits  of 
life  imputed  to  the  divinity  more  nearly  approach  those 
of  an  earthly  patriarchal  potentate  —  where  he  is  con¬ 
ceived  to  make  use  of  these  consumable  goods  in  per¬ 
son.  In  the  latter  case  the  sanctuary  and  its  fittings 
take  on  more  of  the  fashion  given  to  goods  destined  for 
the  conspicuous  consumption  of  a  temporal  master  or 
owner.  On  the  other  hand,  where  the  sacred  apparatus 
is  simply  employed  in  the  divinity’s  service,  that  is  to 
say,  where  it  is  consumed  vicariously  on  his  account  by 
his  servants,  there  the  sacred  properties  take  the  char¬ 
acter  suited  to  goods  that  are  destined  for  vicarious  con¬ 
sumption  only. 

.  In  the  latter  case  the  sanctuary  and  the  sacred  ap¬ 
paratus  are  so  contrived  as  not  to  enhance  the  comfort 
or  fulness  of  life  of  the  vicarious  consumer,  or  at  any 
rate  not  to  convey  the  impression  that  the  end  of  their 
consumption  is  the  consumer’s  comfort.  For  the  end 
of  vicarious  consumption  is  to  enhance,  not  the  fulness 
of  life  of  the  consumer,  but  the  pecuniary  repute  of  the 
master  for  whose  behoof  the  consumption  takes  place. 
Therefore  priestly  vestments  are  notoriously  expensive, 
ornate,  and  inconvenient ;  and  in  the  cults  where  the 


122  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

priestly  servitor  of  the  divinity  is  not  conceived  to 
serve  him  in  the  capacity  of  consort,  they  are  of  an  aus¬ 
tere,  comfortless  fashion.  And  such  it  is  felt  that  they 
should  be. 

It  is  not  only  in  establishing  a  devout  standard  of 
decent  expensiveness  that  the  principle  of  waste  invades 
the  domain  of  the  canons  of  ritual  serviceability.  It 
touches  the  ways  as  well  as  the  means,  and  draws  on 
vicarious  leisure  as  well  as  on  vicarious  consumption. 
Priestly  demeanour  at  its  best  is  aloof,  leisurely,  perfunc¬ 
tory,  and  uncontaminated  with  suggestions  of  carnal 
pleasure.  This  holds  true  in  different  degrees,  of 
course,  for  the  different  cults  and  denominations ;  but 
in  the  priestly  life  of  all  anthropomorphic  cults  the 
marks  of  a  vicarious  consumption  of  time  are  visible. 

The  same  pervading  canon  of  vicarious  leisure  is  also 
visibly  present  in  the  exterior  details  of  devout  observ¬ 
ances  and  need  only  be  pointed  out  in  order  to  become 
obvious  to  all  beholders.  All  ritual  has  a  notable  ten¬ 
dency  to  reduce  itself  to  a  rehearsal  of  formulas.  This 
development  of  formula  is  most  noticeable  in  the  ma- 
turer  cults,  which  have  at  the  same  time  a  more  aus¬ 
tere,  ornate,  and  severe  priestly  life  and  garb ;  but  it  is 
perceptible  also  in  the  forms  and  methods  of  worship  of 
the  newer  and  fresher  sects,  whose  tastes  in  respect  of 
priests,  vestments,  and  sanctuaries  are  less  exacting. 
The  rehearsal  of  the  service  (the  term  “service”  carries 
a  suggestion  significant  for  the  point  in  question)  grows 
more  perfunctory  as  the  cult  gains  in  age  and  consist¬ 
ency,  and  this  perfunctoriness  of  the  rehearsal  is  very 
pleasing  to  the  correct  devout  taste.  And  with  a  good 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 


123 


reason,  for  the  fact  of  its  being  perfunctory  goes  to  say 
pointedly  that  the  master  for  whom  it  is  performed  is 
exalted  above  the  vulgar  need  of  actually  proficuous 
service  on  the  part  of  his  servants.  They  are  unprofi¬ 
table  servants,  and  there  is  a  honorific  implication  for 
their  master  in  their  remaining  unprofitable.  It  is 
needless  to  point  out  the  close  analogy  at  this  point 
between  the  priestly  office  and  the  office  of  the  foot¬ 
man.  It  is  pleasing  to  our  sense  of  what  is  fitting 
in  these  matters,  in  either  case,  to  recognise  in  the 
obvious  perfunctoriness  of  the  service  that  it  is  a  pro 
forma  execution  only.  There  should  be  no  show  of 
agility  or  of  dexterous  manipulation  in  the  execution  of 
the  priestly  office,  such  as  might  suggest  a  capacity  for 
turning  off  work. 

In  all  this  there  is  of  course  an  obvious  implication  as 
to  the  temperament,  tastes,  propensities,  and  habits  of 
life  imputed  to  the  divinity  by  worshippers  who  live 
under  the  tradition  of  these  pecuniary  canons  of  reputa¬ 
bility.  Through  its  pervading  men’s  habits  of  thought, 
the  principle  of  conspicuous  waste  has  coloured  the  wor¬ 
shippers’  notions  of  the  divinity  and  of  the  relation  in 
which  the  human  subject  stands  to  him.  It  is  of  course 
in  the  more  naive  cults  that  this  suffusion  of  pecuniary 
beauty  is  most  patent,  but  it  is  visible  throughout.  All 
peoples,  at  whatever  stage  of  culture  or  degree  of  en¬ 
lightenment,  are  fain  to  eke  out  a  sensibly  scant  degree 
of  authentic  inform  .don  regarding  the  personality  and 
habitual  surroundings  of  their  divinities.  In  so  calling 
in  the  aid  of  fancy  to  enrich  and  fill  in  their  picture  of 
the  divinity’s  presence  and  manner  of  life  they  habitu- 


124  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

ally  impute  to  him  such  traits  as  go  to  make  up  their 
ideal  of  a  worthy  man.  And  in  seeking  communion 
with  the  divinity  the  ways  and  means  of  approach  are 
assimilated  as  nearly  as  may  be  to  the  divine  ideal  that 
is  in  men’s  minds  at  the  time.  It  is  felt  that  the  divine 
presence  is  entered  with  the  best  grace,  and  with  the 
best  effect,  according  to  certain  accepted  methods  and 
with  the  accompaniment  of  certain  material  circum¬ 
stances  which  in  popular  apprehension  are  peculiarly 
'consonant  with  the  divine  nature.  This  popularly 
accepted  ideal  of  the  bearing  and  paraphernalia  ade¬ 
quate  to  such  occasions  of  communion  is,  of  course, 
to  a  good  extent,  shaped  by  the  popular  apprehension 
of  what  is  intrinsically  worthy  and  beautiful  in  human 
carriage  and  surroundings  on  all  occasions  of  dignified 
intercourse.  It  would  on  this  account  be  misleading  to 
attempt  an  analysis  of  devout  demeanour  by  referring 
all  evidences  of  the  presence  of  a  pecuniary  standard  of 
reputability  back  directly  and  baldly  to  the  underlying 
norm  of  pecuniary  emulation.  So  it  would  also  be  mis¬ 
leading  to  ascribe  to  the  divinity,  as  popularly  conceived, 
a  jealous  regard  for  his  pecuniary  standing  and  a  habit 
of  avoiding  and  condemning  squalid  situations  and 
surroundings  simply  because  they  are  under  grade  in 
the  pecuniary  respect. 

And  still,  after  all  allowance  has  been  made,  it  ap¬ 
pears  that  the  canons  of  pecuniary  reputability  do, 
a  directly  or  indirectly,  materially  affect  our  notions  of 
the  attributes  of  divinity,  as  well  as  our  notions  of  what 
are  the  fit  and  adequate  manner  and  circumstances  of 
divine  communion.  It  is  felt  that  the  divinity  must  be 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 


125 


of  a  peculiarly  serene  and  leisurely  habit  of  life.  And 
whenever  his  local  habitation  is  pictured  in  poetic  im¬ 
agery,  for  edification  or  in  appeal  to  the  devout  fancy, 
the  devout  word-painter,  as  a  matter  of  course,  brings 
out  before  his  auditors’  imagination  a  throne  with  a 
profusion  of  the  insignia  of  opulence  and  power,  and 
surrounded  by  a  great  number  of  servitors.  In  the 
common  run  of  such  presentations  of  the  celestial 
abodes,  the  office  of  this  corps  of  servants  is  a  vicari¬ 
ous  leisure,  their  time  and  efforts  being  in  great  meas¬ 
ure  taken  up  with  an  industrially  unproductive  rehearsal 
of  the  meritorious  characteristics  and  exploits  of  the 
divinity ;  while  the  background  of  the  presentation  is 
filled  with  the  shimmer  of  the  precious  metals  and  of 
the  more  expensive  varieties  of  precious  stones.  It  is 
only  in  the  crasser  expressions  of  devout  fancy  that  this 
intrusion  of  pecuniary  canons  into  the  devout  ideals 
reaches  such  an  extreme.  An  extreme  case  occurs  in 
the  devout  imagery  of  the  negro  population  of  the 
South.  Their  word-painters  are  unable  to  descend  to 
anything  cheaper  than  gold ;  so  that  in  this  case  the 
insistence  on  pecuniary  beauty  gives  a  startling  effect 
in  yellow,  —  such  as  would  be  unbearable  to  a  soberer 
taste.  Still,  there  is  probably  no  cult  in  which  ideals 
of  pecuniary  merit  have  not  been  called  in  to  supple¬ 
ment  the  ideals  of  ceremonial  adequacy  that  guide 
men’s  conception  of  what  is  right  in  the  matter  of 
sacred  apparatus. 

Similarly  it  is  felt  —  and  the  sentiment  is  acted  upon 
—  that  the  priestly  servitors  of  the  divinity  should  not 
engage  in  industrially  productive  work ;  that  work  of 


126  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

any  kind  —  any  employment  which  is  of  tangible  human 
use  —  must  not  be  carried  on  in  the  divine  presence,  or 
within  the  precincts  of  the  sanctuary ;  that  whoever 
comes  into  the  presence  should  come  cleansed  of  all 
profane  industrial  features  in  his  apparel  or  person, 
and  should  come  clad  in  garments  of  more  than  every¬ 
day  expensiveness  ;  that  on  holidays  set  apart  in  honour 
of  or  for  communion  with  the  divinity  no  work  that  is 
of  human  use  should  be  performed  by  any  one.  Even 
the  remoter,  lay  dependants  should  render  a  vicarious 
leisure  to  the  extent  of  one  day  in  seven. 

In  all  these  deliverances  of  men’s  uninstructed  sense 
of  what  is  fit  and  proper  in  devout  observance  and  in 
the  relations  of  the  divinity,  the  effectual  presence  of 
the  canons  of  pecuniary  reputability  is  obvious  enough, 
whether  these  canons  have  had  their  effect  on  the 
devout  judgment  in  this  respect  immediately  or  at  the 
second  remove. 

These  canons  of  reputability  have  had  a  similar,  but 
more  far-reaching  and  more  specifically  determinable, 
effect  upon  the  popular  sense  of  beauty  or  serviceability 
in  consumable  goods.  The  requirements  of  pecuniary 
decency  have,  to  a  very  appreciable  extent,  influenced 
the  sense  of  beauty  and  of  utility  in  articles  of  use  or 
beauty.  Articles  are  to  an  extent  preferred  for  use  on 
account  of  their  being  conspicuously  wasteful ;  they  are 
felt  to  be  serviceable  somewhat  in  proportion  as  they 
are  wasteful  and  ill  adapted  to  their  ostensible  use. 

The  utility  of  articles  valued  for  their  beauty  depends 
closely  upon  the  expensiveness  of  the  articles.  A  homely 
illustration  will  bring  out  this  dependence.  A  hand- 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 


127 


wrought  silver  spoon,  of  a  commercial  value  of  some  ten 
to  twenty  dollars,  is  not  ordinarily  more  serviceable  —  in 
the  first  sense  of  the  word  —  than  a  machine-made  spoon 
of  the  same  material.  It  may  not  even  be  more  service¬ 
able  than  a  machine-made  spoon  of  some  “base”  metal, 
such  as  aluminum,  the  value  of  which  may  be  no  more 
than  some  ten  to  twenty  cents.  The  former  of  the  two 
utensils  is,  in  fact,  commonly  a  less  effective  contrivance 
for  its  ostensible  purpose  than  the  latter.  The  objection 
is  of  course  ready  to  hand  that,  in  taking  this  view  of 
the  matter,  one  of  the  chief  uses,  if  not  the  chief  use, 
of  the  costlier  spoon  is  ignored ;  the  hand-wrought 
spoon  gratifies  our  taste,  our  sense  of  the  beautiful, 
while  that  made  by  machinery  out  of  the  base  metal 
has  no  useful  office  beyond  a  brute  efficiency.  The 
facts  are  no  doubt  as  the  objection  states  them,  but  it 
will  be  evident  on  reflection  that  the  objection  is  after 
all  more  plausible  than  conclusive.  It  appears  (1)  that 
while  the  different  materials  of  which  the  two  spoons  are 
made  each  possesses  beauty  and  serviceability  for  the 
purpose  for  which  it  is  used,  the  material  of  the  hand- 
wrought  spoon  is  some  one  hundred  times  more  valuable 
than  the  baser  metal,  without  very  greatly  excelling  the 
latter  in  intrinsic  beauty  of  grain  or  colour,  and  with¬ 
out  being  in  any  appreciable  degree  superior  in  point  of 
mechanical  serviceability;  (2)  if  a  close  inspection  should 
show  that  the  supposed  hand-wrought  spoon  were  in 
reality  only  a  very  clever  imitation  of  hand-wrought 
goods,  but  an  imitation  so  cleverly  wrought  as  to  give 
the  same  impression  of  line  and  surface  to  any  but  a 
minute  examination  by  a  trained  eye,  the  utility  of  the 


128  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

article,  including  the  gratification  which  the  user  derives 
from  its  contemplation  as  an  object  of  beauty,  would 
immediately  decline  by  some  eighty  or  ninety  per  cent, 
or  even  more  ;  (3)  if  the  two  spoons  are,  to  a  fairly  close 
observer,  so  nearly  identical  in  appearance  that  the 
lighter  weight  of  the  spurious  article  alone  betrays  it, 
this  identity  of  form  and  colour  will  scarcely  add  to  the 
value  of  the  machine-made  spoon,  nor  appreciably  en¬ 
hance  the  gratification  of  the  user’s  “sense  of  beauty” 
in  contemplating  it,  so  long  as  the  cheaper  spoon  is  not 
a  novelty,  and  so  long  as  it  can  be  procured  at  a  nomi¬ 
nal  cost. 

The  case  of  the  spoons  is  typical.  The  superior  grat¬ 
ification  derived  from  the  use  and  contemplation  of 
costly  and  supposedly  beautiful  products  is,  commonly, 
in  great  measure  a  gratification  of  our  sense  of  costli¬ 
ness  masquerading  under  the  name  of  beauty.  Our 
higher  appreciation  of  the  superior  article  is  an  appre¬ 
ciation  of  its  superior  honorific  character,  much  more 
frequently  than  it  is  an  unsophisticated  appreciation  of 
its  beauty.  The  requirement  of  conspicuous  wasteful¬ 
ness  is  not  commonly  present,  consciously,  in  our 
canons  of  taste,  but  it  is  none  the  less  present  as  a  con¬ 
straining  norm  selectively  shaping  and  sustaining  our 
sense  of  what  is  beautiful,  and  guiding  our  discrimina¬ 
tion  with  respect  to  what  may  legitimately  be  approved 
as  beautiful  and  what  may  not. 

It  is  at  this  point,  where  the  beautiful  and  the  honor¬ 
ific  meet  and  blend,  that  a  discrimination  between  ser¬ 
viceability  and  wastefulness  is  most  difficult  in  any 
concrete  case.  It  frequently  happens  that  an  article 


A 

Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste  129 

which  serves  the  honorific  purpose  of  conspicuous  waste 
is  at  the  same  time  a  beautiful  object ;  and  the  same 
application  of  labour  to  which  it  owes  its  utility  for  the 
former  purpose  may,  and  often  does,  go  to  give  beauty 
of  form  and  colour  to  the  article.  The  question  is  fur¬ 
ther  complicated  by  the  fact  that  many  objects  as,  for 
instance,  the  precious  stones  and  metals  and  some  other 
materials  used  for  adornment  and  decoration,  owe  their 
utility  as  items  of  conspicuous  waste  to  an  antecedent 
utility  as  objects  of  beauty.  Gold,  for  instance,  has  a 
high  degree  of  sensuous  beauty ;  very  many  if  not  most 
of  the  highly  prized  works  of  art  are  intrinsically  beau¬ 
tiful,  though  often  with  material  qualification  ;  the  like 
is  true  of  some  stuffs  used  for  clothing,  of  some  land¬ 
scapes,  and  of  many  other  things  in  less  degree.  Except 
for  this  intrinsic  beauty  which  they  possess,  these  ob¬ 
jects  would  scarcely  have  been  coveted  as  they  are,  or 
have  become  monopolised  objects  of  pride  to  their  pos¬ 
sessors  and  users.  But  the  utility  of  these  things  to 
the  possessor  is  commonly  due  less  to  their  intrinsic 
beauty  than  to  the  honour  which  their  possession  and 
consumption  confers,  or  to  the  obloquy  which  it  wards 
off. 

Apart  from  their  serviceability  in  other  respects, 
these  objects  are  beautiful  and  have  a  utility  as  such  ; 
they  are  valuable  on  this  account  if  they  can  be  appro¬ 
priated  or  monopolised  ;  they  are,  therefore,  coveted  as 
valuable  possessions,  and  their  exclusive  enjoyment 
gratifies  the  possessor’s  sense  of  pecuniary  superiority 
at  the  same  time  that  their  contemplation  gratifies  his 
sense  of  beauty.  But  their  beauty,  in  the  naive  sense 

K 


// 


130  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

of  the  word,  is  the  occasion  rather  than  the  ground  of 
their  monopolisation  or  of  their  commercial  value. 
“  Great  as  is  the  sensuous  beauty  of  gems,  their  rarity 
and  price  adds  an  expression  of  distinction  to  them, 
which  they  would  never  have  if  they  were  cheap.” 
There  is,  indeed,  in  the  common  run  of  cases  under  this 
head,  relatively  little  incentive  to  the  exclusive  posses¬ 
sion  and  use  of  these  beautiful  things,  except  on  the 
ground  of  their  honorific  character  as  items  of  conspicu¬ 
ous  waste.  Most  objects  of  this  general  class,  with  the 
partial  exception  of  articles  of  personal  adornment, 
would  serve  all  other  purposes  than  the  honorific  one 
equally  well,  whether  owned  by  the  person  viewing 
them  or  not ;  and  even  as  regards  personal  ornaments 
it  is  to  be  added  that  their  chief  purpose  is  to  lend 
eclat  to  the  person  of  their  wearer  (or  owner)  by  compari¬ 
son  with  other  persons  who  are  compelled  to  do  without. 
The  aesthetic  serviceability  of  objects  of  beauty  is  not 
greatly  nor  universally  heightened  by  possession. 

The  generalisation  for  which  the  discussion  so  far 
affords  ground  is  that  any  valuable  object  in  order  to 
appeal  to  our  sense  of  beauty  must  conform  to  the  re¬ 
quirements  of  beauty  and  of  expensiveness  both.  But 
this  is  not  all.  Beyond  this  the  canon  of  expensiveness 
also  affects  our  tastes  in  such  a  way  as  to  inextricably 
blend  the  marks  of  expensiveness,  in  our  appreciation, 
with  the  beautiful  features  of  the  object,  and  to  sub¬ 
sume  the  resultant  effect  under  the  head  of  an  apprecia¬ 
tion  of  beauty  simply.  The  marks  of  expensiveness 
come  to  be  accepted  as  beautiful  features  of  the  expen¬ 
sive  articles.  They  are  pleasing  as  being  marks  of 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste  13 1 

honorific  costliness,  and  the  pleasure  which  they  afford 
on  this  score  blends  with  that  afforded  by  the  beautiful 
form  and  colour  of  the  object ;  so  that  we  often  declare 
that  an  article  of  apparel,  for  instance,  is  “perfectly 
lovely,”  when  pretty  much  all  that  an  analysis  of  the 
aesthetic  value  of  the  article  would  leave  ground  for  is 
the  declaration  that  it  is  pecuniarily  honorific. 

This  blending  and  confusion  of  the  elements  of  ex¬ 
pensiveness  and  of  beauty  is,  perhaps,  best  exemplified 
in  articles  of  dress  and  of  household  furniture.  The 
code  of  reputability  in  matters  of  dress  decides  what 
shapes,  colours,  materials,  and  general  effects  in  human 
apparel  are  for  the  time  to  be  accepted  as  suitable  ;  and 
departures  from  the  code  are  offensive  to  our  taste,  sup¬ 
posedly  as  being  departures  from  aesthetic  truth.  The 
approval  with  which  we  look  upon  fashionable  attire  is 
by  no  means  to  be  accounted  pure  make-believe.  We 
readily,  and  for  the  most  part  with  utter  sincerity,  find 
those  things  pleasing  that  are  in  vogue.  Shaggy  dress- 
stuffs  and  pronounced  colour  effects,  for  instance,  offend 
us  at  times  when  the  vogue  is  goods  of  a  high,  glossy 
finish  and  neutral  colours.  A  fancy  bonnet  of  this 
year’s  model  unquestionably  appeals  to  our  sensibilities 
to-day  much  more  forcibly  than  an  equally  fancy  bonnet 
of  the  model  of  last  year ;  although  when  viewed  in  the 
perspective  of  a  quarter  of  a  century,  it  would,  I  appre¬ 
hend,  be  a  matter  of  the  utmost  difficulty  to  award  the 
palm  for  intrinsic  beauty  to  the  one  rather  than  to  the 
other  of  these  structures.  So,  again,  it  may  be  remarked 
that,  considered  simply  in  their  physical  juxtaposition 
with  the  human  form,  the  high  gloss  of  a  gentleman’s 


132  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

hat  or  of  a  patent-leather  shoe  has  no  more  of  intrinsic 
beauty  than  a  similarly  high  gloss  on  a  threadbare 
sleeve ;  and  yet  there  is  no  question  but  that  all  well- 
bred  people  (in  the  Occidental  civilised  communities) 
instinctively  and  unaffectedly  cleave  to  the  one  as  a 
phenomenon  of  great  beauty,  and  eschew  the  other  as 
offensive  to  every  sense  to  which  it  can  appeal.  It  is 
extremely  doubtful  if  any  one  could  be  induced  to  wear 
such  a  contrivance  as  the  high  hat  of  civilised  society, 
except  for  some  urgent  reason  based  on  other  than 
aesthetic  grounds. 

By  further  habituation  to  an  appreciative  perception 
of  the  marks  of  expensiveness  in  goods,  and  by  habitu¬ 
ally  identifying  beauty  with  reputability,  it  comes  about 
that  a  beautiful  article  which  is  not  expensive  is 
accounted  not  beautiful.  In  this  way  it  has  happened, 
for  instance,  that  some  beautiful  flowers  pass  conven¬ 
tionally  for  offensive  weeds ;  others  that  can  be  culti¬ 
vated  with  relative  ease  are  accepted  and  admired  by 
the  lower  middle  class,  who  can  afford  no  more  expen¬ 
sive  luxuries  of  this  kind ;  but  these  varieties  are  re¬ 
jected  as  vulgar  by  those  people  who  are  better  able  to 
pay  for  expensive  flowers  and  who  are  educated  to  a 
higher  schedule  of  pecuniary  beauty  in  the  florist’s 
products  ;  while  still  other  flowers,  of  no  greater  intrin¬ 
sic  beauty  than  these,  are  cultivated  at  great  cost  and 
call  out  much  admiration  from  flower-lovers  whose  tastes 
have  been  matured  under  the  critical  guidance  of  a 
polite  environment. 

The  same  variation  in  matters  of  taste,  from  one  class 
of  society  to  another,  is  visible  also  as  regards  many 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste  133 

other  kinds  of  consumable  goods,  as,  for  example,  is 
the  case  with  furniture,  houses,  parks,  and  gardens. 
This  diversity  of  views  as  to  what  is  beautiful  in  these 
various  classes  of  goods  is  not  a  diversity  of  the  norm 
according  to  which  the  unsophisticated  sense  of  the 
beautiful  works.  It  is  not  a  constitutional  difference 
of  endowments  in  the  aesthetic  respect,  but  rather  a 
difference  in  the  code  of  reputability  which  specifies 
what  objects  properly  lie  within  the  scope  of  honorific 
consumption  for  the  class  to  which  the  critic  belongs. 
It  is  a  difference  in  the  traditions  of  propriety  with  re¬ 
spect  to  the  kinds  of  things  which  may,  without  dero¬ 
gation  to  the  consumer,  be  consumed  under  the  head 
of  objects  of  taste  and  art.  With  a  certain  allowance 
for  variations  to  be  accounted  for  on  other  grounds, 
these  traditions  are  determined,  more  or  less  rigidly, 
by  the  pecuniary  plane  of  life  of  the  class. 

Everyday  life  affords  many  curious  illustrations  of  the 
way  in  which  the  code  of  pecuniary  beauty  in  articles 
of  use  varies  from  class  to  class,  as  well  as  of  the  way 
in  which  the  conventional  sense  of  beauty  departs  in 
its  deliverances  from  the  sense  untutored  by  the  re¬ 
quirements  of  pecuniary  repute.  Such  a  fact  is  the 
lawn,  or  the  close-cropped  yard  or  park,  which  appeals 
so  unaffectedly  to  the  taste  of  the  Western  peoples. 
It  appears  especially  to  appeal  to  the  tastes  of  the  well- 
to-do  classes  in  those  communities  in  which  the  dolicho- 
blond  element  predominates  in  an  appreciable  degree. 
The  lawn  unquestionably  has  an  element  of  sensuous 
beauty,  simply  as  an  object  of  apperception,  and  as 
such  no  doubt  it  appeals  pretty  directly  to  the  eye  of 


134  77/*  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

nearly  all  races  and  all  classes  ;  but  it  is,  perhaps,  more 
unquestionably  beautiful  to  the  eye  of  the  dolicho- 
blond  than  to  most  other  varieties  of  men.  This  higher 
appreciation  of  a  stretch  of  greensward  in  this  ethnic 
element  than  in  the  other  elements  of  the  population,  ^ 
goes  along  with  certain  other  features  of  the  dolicho-  ^ 
blond  temperament  that  indicate  that  this  racial  element 
has  once  been  for  a  long  time  a  pastoral  people  inhabit¬ 
ing  a  region  with  a  humid  climate.  The  close-cropped 
lawn  is  beautiful  in  the  eyes  of  a  people  whose  in¬ 
herited  bent  it  is  to  readily  find  pleasure  in  contem¬ 
plating  a  well-preserved  pasture  or  grazing  land. 

For  the  aesthetic  purpose  the  lawn  is  a  cow  pasture ; 
and  in  some  cases  to-day  — where  the  expensiveness  of 
the  attendant  circumstances  bars  out  any  imputation 
of  thrift  —  the  idyl  of  the  dolicho-blond  is  rehabili¬ 
tated  in  the  introduction  of  a  cow  into  a  lawn  or  pri¬ 
vate  ground.  In  such  cases  the  cow  made  use  of  is 
commonly  of  an  expensive  breed.  The  vulgar  sugges¬ 
tion  of  thrift,  which  is  nearly  inseparable  from  the 
cow,  is  a  standing  objection  to  the  decorative  use  of 
this  animal.  So  that  in  all  cases,  except  where  luxu¬ 
rious  surroundings  negative  this  suggestion,  the  use 
of  the  cow  as  an  object  of  taste  must  be  avoided. 
Where  the  predilection  for  some  grazing  animal  to 
fill  out  the  suggestion  of  the  pasture  is  too  strong  to 
be  suppressed,  the  cow’s  place  is  often  given  to  some 
more  or  less  inadequate  substitute,  such  as  deer,  ante¬ 
lopes,  or  some  such  exotic  beast.  These  substitutes, 
although  less  beautiful  to  the  pastoral  eye  of  Western 
man  than  the  cow,  are  in  such  cases  preferied  because 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 


135 


of  their  superior  expensiveness  or  futility,  and  their 
consequent  repute.  They  are  not  vulgarly  lucrative 
either  in  fact  or  in  suggestion. 

Public  parks  of  course  fall  in  the  same  category  with 
the  lawn ;  they  too,  at  their  best,  are  imitations  of 
the  pasture.  Such  a  park  is  of  course  best  kept  by 
grazing,  and  the  cattle  on  the  grass  are  themselves 
no  mean  addition  to  the  beauty  of  the  thing,  as  need 
scarcely  be  insisted  on  with  any  one  who  has  once 
seen  a  well-kept  pasture.  But  it  is  worth  noting,  as 
an  expression  of  the  pecuniary  element  in  popular 
taste,  that  such  a  method  of  keeping  public  grounds 
is  seldom  resorted  to.  The  best  that  is  done  by 
skilled  workmen  under  the  supervision  of  a  trained 
keeper  is  a  more  or  less  close  imitation  of  a  pasture, 
but  the  result  invariably  falls  somewhat  short  of  the 
artistic  effect  of  grazing.  But  to  the  average  popular 
apprehension  a  herd  of  cattle  so  pointedly  suggests 
thrift  and  usefulness  that  their  presence  in  the  public 
pleasure  ground  would  be  intolerably  cheap.  This 
method  of  keeping  grounds  is  comparatively  inexpen-'^ 
sive,  therefore  it  is  indecorous. 

Of  the  same  general  bearing  is  another  feature  of 
public  grounds.  There  is  a  studious  exhibition  of  ex¬ 
pensiveness  coupled  with  a  make-believe  of  simplicity 
and  crude  serviceability.  Private  grounds  also  show 
the  same  physiognomy  wherever  they  are  in  the  man¬ 
agement  or  ownership  of  persons  whose  tastes  have 
been  formed  under  middle-class  habits  of  life  or  under 
the  upper-class  traditions  of  no  later  a  date  than  the  child¬ 
hood  of  the  generation  that  is  now  passing.  Grounds 


136  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

which  conform  to  the  instructed  tastes  of  the  latter-day 
upper  class  do  not  show  these  features  in  so  marked  a 
degree;  The  reason  for  this  difference  in  tastes  between 
the  past  and  the  incoming  generation  of  the  well  bred 
lies  in  the  changing  economic  situation.  A  similar  differ¬ 
ence  is  perceptible  in  other  respects,  as  well  as  in  the 
accepted  ideals  of  pleasure  grounds.  In  this  country  as 
in  most  others,  until  the  last  half  century  but  a  very 
small  proportion  of  the  population  were  possessed  of 
such  wealth  as  would  exempt  them  from  thrift.  Owing 
to  imperfect  means  of  communication,  this  small  frac¬ 
tion  were  scattered  and  out  of  effective  touch  with  one 
another.  There  was  therefore  no  basis  for  a  growth  of 
taste  in  disregard  of  expensiveness.  The  revolt  of  the 
well-bred  taste  against  vulgar  thrift  was  unchecked. 
Wherever  the  unsophisticated  sense  of  beauty  might 
show  itself  sporadically  in  an  approval  of  inexpensive 
or  thrifty  surroundings,  it  would  lack  the  “social  con¬ 
firmation”  which  nothing  but  a  considerable  body  of 
like-minded  people  can  give.  There  was,  therefore,  no 
effective  upper-class  opinion  that  would  overlook  evi¬ 
dences  of  possible  inexpensiveness  in  the  management 
of  grounds  ;  and  there  was  consequently  no  appreciable 
divergence  between  the  leisure-class  and  the  lower 
middle-class  ideal  in  the  physiognomy  of  pleasure 
grounds.  Both  classes  equally  constructed  their  ideals 
with  the  fear  of  pecuniary  disrepute  before  their  eyes. 

To-day  a  divergence  in  ideals  is  beginning  to  be  appar¬ 
ent.  The  portion  of  the  leisure  class  that  has  been  con¬ 
sistently  exempt  from  work  and  from  pecuniary  cares 
for  a  generation  or  more  is  now  large  enough  to  form 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 


13  7 


and  sustain  an  opinion  in  matters  of  taste.  Increased 
mobility  of  the  members  has  also  added  to  the  facility 
with  which  a  “social  confirmation”  can  be  attained 
within  the  class.  Within  this  select  class  the  exemp¬ 
tion  from  thrift  is  a  matter  so  commonplace  as  to  have 
lost  much  of  its  utility  as  a  basis  of  pecuniary  decency. 
Therefore  the  latter-day  upper-class  canons  of  taste  do 
not  so  consistently  insist  on  an  unremitting  demonstra¬ 
tion  of  expensiveness  and  a  strict  exclusion  of  the  ap¬ 
pearance  of  thrift.  So,  a  predilection  for  the  rustic  and 
the  “natural”  in  parks  and  grounds  makes  its  appear¬ 
ance  on  these  higher  social  and  intellectual  levels.  This 
predilection  is  in  large  part  an  outcropping  of  the  in¬ 
stinct  of  workmanship  ;  and  it  works  out  its  results  with 
varying  degrees  of  consistency.  It  is  seldom  altogether 
unaffected,  and  at  times  it  shades  off  into  something 
not  widely  different  from  that  make-believe  of  rusticity 
which  has  been  referred  to  above. 

A  weakness  for  crudely  serviceable  contrivances  that 
pointedly  suggest  immediate  and  wasteless  use  is  pres¬ 
ent  even  in  the  middle-class  tastes ;  but  it  is  there 
kept  well  in  hand  under  the  unbroken  'dominance  of 
the  canon  of  reputable  futility.  Consequently  it  works 
out  in  a  variety  of  ways  and  means  for  shamming  ser¬ 
viceability, —  in  such  contrivances  as  rustic  fences, 
bridges,  bowers,  pavilions,  and  the  like  decorative 
features.  An  expression  of  this  affectation  of  service¬ 
ability,  at  what  is  perhaps  its  widest  divergence  from  the 
first  promptings  of  the  sense  of  economic  beauty,  is 
afforded  by  the  cast-iron  rustic  fence  and  trellis  or  by  a 
circuitous  drive  laid  across  level  ground. 


138  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

The  select  leisure  class  has  outgrown  the  use  of  these 
pseudo-serviceable  variants  of  pecuniary  beauty,  at  least 
at  some  points.  But  the  taste  of  the  more  recent  acces¬ 
sions  to  the  leisure  class  proper  and  of  the  middle  and 
lower  classes  still  requires  a  pecuniary  beauty  to  supple¬ 
ment  the  aesthetic  beauty,  even  in  those  objects  which 
are  primarily  admired  for  the  beauty  that  belongs  to 
them  as  natural  growths. 

The  popular  taste  in  these  matters  is  to  be  seen  in 
the  prevalent  high  appreciation  of  topiary  work  and 
of  the  conventional  flower-beds  of  public  grounds.  Per¬ 
haps  as  happy  an  illustration  as  may  be  had  of  this 
dominance  of  pecuniary  beauty  over  aesthetic  beauty 
in  middle-class  tastes  is  seen  in  the  reconstruction  of 
the  grounds  lately  occupied  by  the  Columbian  Exposi¬ 
tion.  The  evidence  goes  to  show  that  the  requirement 
of  reputable  expensiveness  is  still  present  in  good  vigour 
even  where  all  ostensibly  lavish  display  is  avoided.  The 
artistic  effects  actually  wrought  in  this  work  of  recon¬ 
struction  diverge  somewhat  widely  from  the  effect  to 
which  the  same  ground  would  have  lent  itself  in  hands 
not  guided  by  pecuniary  canons  of  taste.  And  even 
the  better  class  of  the  city’s  population  view  the  prog¬ 
ress  of  the  work  with  an  unreserved  approval  which 
suggests  that  there  is  in  this  case  little  if  any  discre¬ 
pancy  between  the  tastes  of  the  upper  and  the  lower  or 
middle  classes  of  the  city.  The  sense  of  beauty  in  ttfe 
population  of  this  representative  city  of  the  advanced 
pecuniary  culture  is  very  chary  of  any  departure  from 
its  great  cultural  principle  of  conspicuous  waste. 

The  love  of  nature,  perhaps  itself  borrowed  from  a 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 


139 


higher-class  code  of  taste,  sometimes  expresses  itself 
in  unexpected  ways  under  the  guidance  of  this  canon 
of  pecuniary  beauty,  and  leads  to  results  that  may  seem 
incongruous  to  an  unreflecting  beholder.  The  well- 
accepted  practice  of  planting  trees  in  the  treeless  areas 
of  this  country,  for  instance,  has  been  carried  over  as 
an  item  of  honorific  expenditure  into  the  heavily  wooded 
areas  ;  so  that  it  is  by  no  means  unusual  for  a  village 
or  a  farmer  in  the  wooded  country  to  clear  the  land  of 
its  native  trees  and  immediately  replant  saplings  of 
certain  introduced  varieties  about  the  farmyard  or  along 
the  streets.  In  this  way  a  forest  growth  of  oak,  elm, 
beech,  butternut,  hemlock,  basswood,  and  birch  is  cleared 
off  to  give  room  for  saplings  of  soft  maple,  cottonwood, 
and  brittle  willow.  It  is  felt  that  the  inexpensiveness 
of  leaving  the  forest  trees  standing  would  derogate 
from  the  dignity  that  should  invest  an  article  which  is 
intended  to  serve  a  decorative  and  honorific  end. 

The  like  pervading  guidance  of  taste  by  pecuniary 
repute  is  traceable  in  the  prevalent  standards  of  beauty 
in  animals.  The  part  played  by  this  canon  of  taste  in 
assigning  her  place  in  the  popular  aesthetic  scale  to  the 
cow  has  already  been  spoken  of.  Something  to  the 
same  effect  is  true  of  the  other  domestic  animals,  so  far 
as  they  are  in  an  appreciable  degree  industrially  useful 
to  the  community  —  as,  for  instance,  barnyard  fowls, 
hogs,  cattle,  sheep,  goats,  draught-horses.  They  are  of 
the  nature  of  productive  goods,  and  serve  a  useful,  often 
a  lucrative  end  ;  therefore  beauty  is  not  readily  imputed 
to  them.  The  case  is  different  with  those  domestic 
animals  which  ordinarily  serve  no  industrial  end ;  such 


140  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

as  pigeons,  parrots  and  other  cage-birds,  cats,  dogs,  and 
fast  horses.  These  commonly  are  items  of  conspicuous 
consumption,  and  are  therefore  honorific  in  their  nature 
and  may  legitimately  be  accounted  beautiful.  This 
class  of  animals  are  conventionally  admired  by  the  body 
of  the  upper  classes,  while  the  pecuniarily  lower  classes 
—  and  that  select  minority  of  the  leisure  class  among 
whom  the  rigorous  canon  that  abjures  thrift  is  in  a 
measure  obsolescent  —  find  beauty  in  one  class  of  ani¬ 
mals  as  in  another,  without  drawing  a  hard  and  fast  line 
of  pecuniary  demarcation  between  the  beautiful  and  the 
ugly. 

In  the  case  of  those  domestic  animals  which  are 
honorific  and  are  reputed  beautiful,  there  is  a  subsidiary 
basis  of  merit  that  should  be  spoken  of.  Apart  from 
the  birds  which  belong  in  the  honorific  class  of  domestic 
animals,  and  which  owe  their  place  in  this  class  to  their 
non-lucrative  character  alone,  the  animals  which  merit 
particular  attention  are  cats,  dogs,  and  fast  horses. 
The  cat  is  less  reputable  than  the  other  two  just  named, 
because  she  is  less  wasteful ;  she  may  even  serve  a 
useful  end.  At  the  same  time  the  cat’s  temperament 
does  not  fit  her  for  the  honorific  purpose.  She  lives 
with  man  on  terms  of  equality,  knows  nothing  of  that 
relation  of  status  which  is  the  ancient  basis  of  all  dis¬ 
tinctions  of  worth,  honour,  and  repute,  and  she  does  not 
lend  herself  with  facility  to  an  invidious  comparison 
between  her  owner  and  his  neighbours.  The  exception 
to  this  last  rule  occurs  in  the  case  of  such  scarce  and 
fanciful  products  as  the  Angora  cat,  which  have  some 
slight  honorific  value  on  the  ground  of  expensiveness, 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste  14 1 

and  have,  therefore,  some  special  claim  to  beauty  on 
pecuniary  grounds. 

The  dog  has  advantages  in  the  way  of  uselessness  as 

well  as  in  special  gifts  of  temperament.  He  is  often 

spoken  of,  in  an  eminent  sense,  as  the  friend  of  man, 

and  his  intelligence  and  fidelity  are  praised.  The 

» 

meaning  of  this  is  that  the  dog  is  man’s  servant  and 
that  he  has  the  gift  of  an  unquestioning  subservience 
and  a  slave’s  quickness  in  guessing  his  master’s  mood. 
Coupled  with  these  traits,  which  fit  him  well  for  the 
relation  of  status  —  and  which  must  for  the  present 
purpose  be  set  down  as  serviceable  traits  —  the  dog 
has  some  characteristics  which  are  of  a  more  equivocal 
aesthetic  value.  He  is  the  filthiest  of  the  domestic 
animals  in  his  person  and  the  nastiest  in  his  habits. 
For  this  he  makes  up  in  a  servile,  fawning  attitude 
towards  his  master,  and  a  readiness  to  inflict  damage 
and  discomfort  on  all  else.  The  dog,  then,  commends 
himself  to  our  favour  by  affording  play  to  our  propensity 
for  mastery,  and  as  he  is  also  an  item  of  expense,  and 
commonly  serves  no  industrial  purpose,  he  holds  a  well- 
assured  place  in  men’s  regard  as  a  thing  of  good  repute. 
The  dog  is  at  the  same  time  associated  in  our  imagina¬ 
tion  with  the  chase  —  a  meritorious  employment  and  an 
expression  of  the  honourable  predatory  impulse. 

Standing  on  this  vantage  ground,  whatever  beauty  of 
form  and  motion  and  whatever  commendable  mental 
traits  he  may  possess  are  conventionally  acknowledged 
and  magnified.  And  even  those  varieties  of  the  dog 
which  have  been  bred  into  grotesque  deformity  by  the 
dog-fancier  are  in  good  faith  accounted  beautiful  by 


142  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

many.  These  varieties  of  dogs  —  and  the  like  is  true 
of  other  fancy-bred  animals  —  are  rated  and  graded  in 
aesthetic  value  somewhat  in  proportion  to  the  degree  of 
grotesqueness  and  instability  of  the  particular  fashion 
which  the  deformity  takes  in  the  given  case.  For  the 
purpose  in  hand,  this  differential  utility  on  the  ground 
of  grotesqueness  and  instability  of  structure  is  reducible 
to  terms  of  a  greater  scarcity  and  consequent  expense. 
The  commercial  value  of  canine  monstrosities,  such  as 
the  prevailing  styles  of  pet  dogs  both  for  men’s  and 
women’s  use,  rests  on  their  high  cost  of  production,  and 
their  value  to  their  owners  lies  chiefly  in  their  utility  as 
items  of  conspicuous  consumption.  Indirectly,  through 
reflection  upon  their  honorific  expensiveness,  a  social 
worth  is  imputed  to  them  ;  and  so,  by  an  easy  substitu¬ 
tion  of  words  and  ideas,  they  come  to  be  admired  and  re¬ 
puted  beautiful.  Since  any  attention  bestowed  upon 
these  animals  is  in  no  sense  gainful  or  useful,  it  is  also 
reputable  ;  and  since  the  habit  of  giving  them  attention 
is  consequently  not  deprecated,  it  may  grow  into  an 
habitual  attachment  of  great  tenacity  and  of  a  most 
benevolent  character.  So  that  in  the  affection  be¬ 
stowed  on  pet  animals  the  canon  of  expensiveness  is 
j  present  more  or  less  remotely  as  a  norm  which  guides 
and  shapes  the  sentiment  and  the  selection  of  its  object. 
The  like  is  true,  as  will  be  noticed  presently,  with 
respect  to  affection  for  persons  also ;  although  the 
manner  in  which  the  norm  acts  in  that  case  is  some¬ 
what  different. 

The  case  of  the  fast  horse  is  much  like  that  of  the 
dog.  He  is  on  the  whole  expensive,  or  wasteful  and 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 


143 


useless —  for  the  industrial  purpose.  What  productive 
use  he  may  possess,  in  the  way  of  enhancing  the  well¬ 
being  of  the  community  or  making  the  way  of  life 
easier  for  men,  takes  the  form  of  exhibitions  of  force 
and  facility  of  motion  that  gratify  the  popular  aesthetic 

sense.  This  is  of  course  a  substantial  serviceability. 

* 

The  horse  is  not  endowed  with  the  spiritual  aptitude  for 
servile  dependence  in  the  same  measure  as  the  dog;  but 
he  ministers  effectually  to  his  master’s  impulse  to  con¬ 
vert  the  “animate  ”  forces  of  the  environment  to  his  own 
use  and  discretion  and  so  express  his  own  dominating 
individuality  through  them.  The  fast  horse  is  at  least 
potentially  a  race-horse,  of  high  or  low  degree ;  and  it 
is  as  such  that  he  is  peculiarly  serviceable  to  his  owner. 
The  utility  of  the  fast  horse  lies  largely  in  his  efficiency 
as  a  means  of  emulation ;  it  gratifies  the  owner’s  sense 
of  aggression  and  dominance  to  have  his  own  horse 
outstrip  his  neighbour’s.  This  use  being  not  lucrative, 
but  on  the  whole  pretty  consistently  wasteful,  and 
quite  conspicuously  so,  it  is  honorific,  and  therefore 
gives  the  fast  horse  a  strong  presumptive  position  of 
reputability.  Beyond  this,  the  race  horse  proper  has 
also  a  similarly  non-industrial  but  honorific  use  as  a 
gambling  instrument. 

*  The  fast  horse,  then,  is  aesthetically  fortunate,  in 
that  the  canon  of  pecuniary  good  repute  legitimates  a 
free  appreciation  of  whatever  beauty  or  serviceability 
he  may  possess.  His  pretensions  have  the  counte¬ 
nance  of  the  principle  of  conspicuous  waste  and  the 
backing  of  the  predatory  aptitude  for  dominance  and 
emulation.  The  horse  is,  moreover,  a  beautiful  animal, 


144  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

although  the  race-horse  is  so  in  no  peculiar  degree 
to  the  uninstructed  taste  of  those  persons  who  belong 
neither  in  the  class  of  race-horse  fanciers  nor  in  the 
class  whose  sense  of  beauty  is  held  in  abeyance  by 
the  moral  constraint  of  the  horse  fancier’s  award.  To 
this  untutored  taste  the  most  beautiful  horse  seems 
to  be  a  form  which  has  suffered  less  radical  alteration 
than  the  race-horse  under  the  breeder’s  selective  de¬ 
velopment  of  the  animal.  Still,  when  a  writer  or 
speaker  —  especially  of  those  whose  eloquence  is  most 
consistently  commonplace  —  wants  an  illustration  of 
animal  grace  and  serviceability,  for  rhetorical  use,  he 
habitually  turns  to  the  horse ;  and  he  commonly 
makes  it  plain  before  he  is  done  that  what  he  has 
in  mind  is  the  race-horse. 

It  should  be  noted  that  in  the  graduated  apprecia¬ 
tion  of  varieties  of  horses  and  of  dogs,  such  as  one 
meets  with  among  people  of  even  moderately  culti¬ 
vated  tastes  in  these  matters,  there  is  also  discernible 
another  and  more  direct  line  of  influence  of  the  leisure- 
class  canons  of  reputability.  In  this  country,  for  in¬ 
stance,  leisure-class  tastes  are  to  some  extent  shaped 
on  usages  and  habits  which  prevail,  or  which  are  ap¬ 
prehended  to  prevail,  among  the  leisure  class  of  Great 
Britain.  In  dogs  this  is  true  to  a  less  extent  than  in 
horses.  In  horses,  more  particularly  in  saddle  horses, 
—  which  at  their  best  serve  the  purpose  of  wasteful 
display  simply,  —  it  will  hold  true  in  a  general  way 
that  a  horse  is  more  beautiful  in  proportion  as  he 
is  more  English  ;  the  English  leisure  class  being,  for 
purposes  of  reputable  usage,  the  upper  leisure  class 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 


145 


of  this  country,  and  so  the  exemplar  for  the  lower 
grades.  This  mimicry  in  the  methods  of  the  apper¬ 
ception  of  beauty  and  in  the  forming  of  judgments 
of  taste  need  not  result  in  a  spurious,  or  at  any  rate 
not  a  hypocritical  or  affected,  predilection.  The  pre¬ 
dilection  is  as  serious  and  as  substantial  an  award  of 
taste  when  it  rests  on  this  basis  as  when  it  rests  on 
any  other ;  the  difference  is  that  this  taste  is  a  taste 
for  the  reputably  correct,  not  for  the  aesthetically  true. 

The  mimicry,  it  should  be  said,  extends  further  than 
to  the  sense  of  beauty  in  horseflesh  simply.  It  in¬ 
cludes  trappings  and  horsemanship  as  well,  so  that 
the  correct  or  reputably  beautiful  seat  or  posture  is 
also  decided  by  English  usage,  as  well  as  the  eques¬ 
trian  gait.  To  show  how  fortuitous  may  sometimes 
be  the  circumstances  which  decide  what  shall  be  be¬ 
coming  and  what  not  under  the  pecuniary  canon  of 
beauty,  it  may  be  noted  that  this  English  seat,  and 
the  peculiarly  distressing  gait  which  has  made  an 
awkward  seat  necessary,  are  a  survival  from  the  time 
when  the  English  roads  were  so  bad  with  mire  and 
mud  as  to  be  virtually  impassable  for  a  horse  travel¬ 
ling  at  a  more  comfortable  gait ;  so  that  a  person  of 
decorous  tastes  in  horsemanship  to-day  rides  a  punch 
with  docked  tail,  in  an  uncomfortable  posture  and  at 
a  distressing  gait,  because  the  English  roads  during 
a  great  part  of  the  last  century  were  impassable  for  a 
horse  travelling  at  a  more  horse-like  gait,  or  for  an 
animal  built  for  moving  with  ease  over  the  firm  and 
open  country  to  which  the  horse  is  indigenous. 

It  is  not  only  with  respect  to  consumable  goods  — 


146  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

including  domestic  animals  —  that  the  canons  of  taste 
have  been  coloured  by  the  canons  of  pecuniary  reputa¬ 
bility.  Something  to  the  like  effect  is  to  be  said  for 
beauty  in  persons.  In  order  to  avoid  whatever  may 
be  matter  of  controversy,  no  weight  will  be  given  in 
this  connection  to  such  popular  predilection  as  there 
may  be  for  the  dignified  (leisurely)  bearing  and  portly 
presence  that  are  by  vulgar  tradition  associated  with 
opulence  in  mature  men.  These  traits  are  in  some 
measure  accepted  as  elements  of  personal  beauty. 
But  there  are  certain  elements  of  feminine  beauty, 
on  the  other  hand,  which  come  in  under  this  head, 
and  which  are  of  so  concrete  and  specific  a  character 
as  to  admit  of  itemized  appreciation.  It  is  more  or 
less  a  rule  that  in  communities  which  are  at  the  stage 
of  economic  development  at  which  women  are  valued 
by  the  upper  class  for  their  service,  the  ideal  of  fe¬ 
male  beauty  is  a  robust,  large-limbed  woman.  The 
ground  of  appreciation  is  the  physique,  while  the  con¬ 
formation  of  the  face  is  of  secondary  weight  only.  A 
well-known  instance  of  this  ideal  of  the  early  preda¬ 
tory  culture  is  that  of  the  maidens  of  the  Homeric 
poems. 

This  ideal  suffers  a  change  in  the  succeeding  develop¬ 
ment,  when,  in  the  conventional  scheme,  the  office  of 
the  high-class  wife  comes  to  be  a  vicarious  leisure 
simply.  The  ideal  then  includes  the  characteristics 
which  are  supposed  to  result  from  or  to  go  with  a  life 
of  leisure  consistently  enforced.  The  ideal  accepted 
under  these  circumstances  may  be  gathered  from  de¬ 
scriptions  of  beautiful  women  by  poets  and  writers  of 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 


14  7 


the  chivalric  times.  In  the  conventional  scheme  of 
those  days  ladies  of  high  degree  were  conceived  to  be 
in  perpetual  tutelage,  and  to  be  scrupulously  exempt 
from  all  useful  work.  The  resulting  chivalric  or  roman¬ 
tic  ideal  of  beauty  takes  cognizance  chiefly  of  the  face, 
and  dwells  on  its  delicacy,  and  on  the  delicacy  of  the 
hands  and  feet,  the  slender  figure,  and  especially  the 
slender  waist.  In  the  pictorial  representations  of 
the  women  of  that  time,  and  in  modern  romantic  imi¬ 
tators  of  the  chivalric  thought  and  feeling,  the  waist  is 
attenuated  to  a  degree  that  implies  extreme  debility. 
The  same  ideal  is  still  extant  among  a  considerable  por¬ 
tion  of  the  population  of  modern  industrial  communi¬ 
ties  ;  but  it  is  to  be  said  that  it  has  retained  its  hold 
most  tenaciously  in  those  modern  communities  which 
are  least  advanced  in  point  of  economic  and  civil  devel¬ 
opment,  and  which  show  the  most  considerable  sur¬ 
vivals  of  status  and  of  predatory  institutions.  That  is 
to  say,  the  chivalric  ideal  is  best  preserved  in  those 
existing  communities  which  are  substantially  least  mod¬ 
ern.  Survivals  of  this  lackadaisical  or  romantic  ideal 
occur  freely  in  the  tastes  of  the  well-to-do  classes  of 
Continental  countries. 

In  modern  communities  which  have  reached  the  higher 
levels  of  industrial  development,  the  upper  leisure  class 
has  accumulated  so  great  a  mass  of  wealth  as  to  place 
its  women  above  all  imputation  of  vulgarly  productive 
labour.  Here  the  status  of  women  as  vicarious  con¬ 
sumers  is  beginning  to  lose  its  place  in  the  affections 
of  the  body  of  the  people ;  and  as  a  consequence  the 
ideal  of  feminine  beauty  is  beginning  to  change  back 


148  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

again  from  the  infirmly  delicate,  translucent,  and  haz¬ 
ardously  slender,  to  a  woman  of  the  archaic  type  that 
does  not  disown  her  hands  and  feet,  nor,  indeed,  the 
other  gross  material  facts  of  her  person.  In  the  course 
of  economic  development  the  ideal  of  beauty  among  the 
peoples  of  the  Western  culture  has  shifted  from  the 
woman  of  physical  presence  to  the  lady,  and  it  is  be¬ 
ginning  to  shift  back  again  to  the  woman ;  and  all  in 
obedience  to  the  changing  conditions  of  pecuniary  emu¬ 
lation.  The  exigencies  of  emulation  at  one  time  required 
lusty  slaves  ;  at  another  time  they  required  a  conspicu¬ 
ous  performance  of  vicarious  leisure  and  consequently 
an  obvious  disability  :  but  the  situation  is  now  begin¬ 
ning  to  outgrow  this  last  requirement,  since,  under  the 
higher  efficiency  of  modern  industry,  leisure  in  women 
is  possible  so  far  down  the  scale  of  reputability  that  it 
will  no  longer  serve  as  a  definitive  mark  of  the  highest 
pecuniary  grade. 

Apart  from  this  general  control  exercised  by  the  norm 
of  conspicuous  waste  over  the  ideal  of  feminine  beauty, 
there  are  one  or  two  details  which  merit  specific  mention 
as  showing  how  it  may  exercise  an  extreme  constraint 
in  detail  over  men’s  sense  of  beauty  in  women.  It  has 
already  been  noticed  that  at  the  stages  of  economic 
evolution  at  which  conspicuous  leisure  is  much  regarded 
as  a  means  of  good  repute,  the  ideal  requires  delicate 
and  diminutive  hands  and  feet  and  a  slender  waist. 
These  features,  together  with  the  other,  related  faults 
of  structure  that  commonly  go  with  them,  go  to  show 
that  the  person  so  affected  is  incapable  of  useful  effort 
and  must  therefore  be  supported  in  idleness  by  her 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 


149 


owner.  She  is  useless  and  expensive,  and  she  is  con¬ 
sequently  valuable  as  evidence  of  pecuniary  strength. 
It  results  that  at  this  cultural  stage  women  take  thought 
to  alter  their  persons,  so  as  to  conform  more  nearly  to 
the  requirements  of  the  instructed  taste  of  the  time ; 
and  under  the.  guidance  of  the  canon  of  pecuniary 
decency,  the  men  find  the  resulting  artificially  induced 
pathological  features  attractive.  So,  for  instance,  the 
constricted  waist  which  has  had  so  wide  and  persistent 
a  vogue  in  the  communities  of  the  Western  culture,  and 
so  also  the  deformed  foot  of  the  Chinese.  Both  of  these 
are  mutilations  of  unquestioned  repulsiveness  to  the 
untrained  sense.  It  requires  habituation  to  become 
reconciled  to  them.  Yet  there  is  no  room  to  question 
their  attractiveness  to  men  into  whose  scheme  of  life 
they  fit  as  honorific  items  sanctioned  by  the  require¬ 
ments  of  pecuniary  reputability.  They  are  items  of 
pecuniary  and  cultural  beauty  which  have  come  to  do 
duty  as  elements  of  the  ideal  of  womanliness. 

The  connection  here  indicated  between  the  aesthetic 
value  and  the  invidious  pecuniary  value  of  things  is  of 
course  not  present  in  the  consciousness  of  the  valuer. 
So  far  as  a  person,  in  forming  a  judgment  of  taste, 
takes  thought  and  reflects  that  the  object  of  beauty 
under  consideration  is  wasteful  and  reputable,  and  there¬ 
fore  may  legitimately  be  accounted  beautiful ;  so  far  the 
judgment  is  not  a  bona  fide  judgment  of  taste  and  does 
not  come  up  fof  consideration  in  this  connection.  The 
connection  which  is  here  insisted  on  between  the  repu¬ 
tability  and  the  apprehended  beauty  of  objects  lies 
through  the  effect  which  the  fact  of  reputability  has 


150  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

upon  the  valuer’s  habits  of  thought.  He  is  in  the  habit 
of  forming  judgments  of  value  of  various  kinds  —  eco¬ 
nomic,  moral,  aesthetic,  or  reputable  —  concerning  the 
objects  with  which  he  has  to  do,  and  his  attitude  of  com¬ 
mendation  towards  a  given  object  on  any  other  ground 
will  affect  the  degree  of  his  appreciation  of  the  object 
when  he  comes  to  value  it  for  the  aesthetic  purpose. 
This  is  more  particularly  true  as  regards  valuation  on 
grounds  so  closely  related  to  the  aesthetic  ground  as 
that  of  reputability.  The  valuation  for  the  aesthetic 
purpose  and  for  the  purpose  of  repute  are  not  held  apart 
as  distinctly  as  might  be.  Confusion  is  especially  apt 
to  arise  between  these  two  kinds  of  valuation,  because 
the  value  of  objects  for  repute  is  not  habitually  distin¬ 
guished  in  speech  by  the  use  of  a  special  descriptive 
term.  The  result  is  that  the  terms  in  familiar  use  to 
designate  categories  or  elements  of  beauty  are  applied 
to  cover  this  unnamed  element  of  pecuniary  merit,  and 
the  corresponding  confusion  of  ideas  follows  by  easy 
consequence.  The  demands  of  reputability  in  this  way 
coalesce  in  the  popular  apprehension  with  the  demands 
of  the  sense  of  beauty,  and  beauty  which  is  not  accom¬ 
panied  by  the  accredited  marks  of  good  repute  is  not 
accepted.  But  the  requirements  of  pecuniary  reputa¬ 
bility  and  those  of  beauty  in  the  naive  sense  do  not  in 
any  appreciable  degree  coincide.  The  elimination  from 
our  surroundings  of  the  pecuniarily  unfit,  therefore, 
results  in  a  more  or  less  thorough  elimination  of  that 
considerable  range  of  elements  of  beauty  which  do  not 
happen  to  conform  to  the  pecuniary  requirement. 

The  underlying  norms  of  taste  are  of  very  ancient 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste  15 1 

growth,  probably  far  antedating  the  advent  of  the 
pecuniary  institutions  that  are  here  under  discussion. 
Consequently,  by  force  of  the  past  selective  adaptation 
of  men’s  habits  of  thought,  it  happens  that  the  require¬ 
ments  of  beauty,  simply,  are  for  the  most  part  best 
satisfied  by  inexpensive  contrivances  and  structures 
which  in  a  straightforward  manner  suggest  both  the 
office  which  they  are  to  perform  and  the  method  of 
serving  their  end. 

It  may  be  in  place  to  recall  the  modern  psychological 
position.  Beauty  of  form  seems  to  be  a  question  of 
facility  of  apperception.  The  proposition  could  per¬ 
haps  safely  be  made  broader  than  this.  If  abstraction 
is  made  from  association,  suggestion,  and  “expression,” 
classed  as  elements  of  beauty,  then  beauty  in  any  per¬ 
ceived  object  means  that  the  mind  readily  unfolds  its 
apperceptive  activity  in  the  directions  which  the  object 
in  question  affords.  But  the  directions  in  which  activ¬ 
ity  readily  unfolds  or  expresses  itself  are  the  directions 
to  which  long  and  close  habituation  has  made  the  mind 
prone.  So  far  as  concerns  the  essential  elements  of 
beauty,  this  habituation  is  an  habituation  so  close  and 
long  as  to  have  induced  not  only  a  proclivity  to  the 
apperceptive  form  in  question,  but  an  adaptation  of 
physiological  structure  and  function  as  well.  So  far  as 
the  economic  interest  enters  into  the  constitution  of 
beauty,  it  enters  as  a  suggestion  or  expression  of  ade¬ 
quacy  to  a  purpose,  a  manifest  and  readily  inferable 
subservience  to  the  life  process.  This  expression  of 
economic  facility  or  economic  serviceability  in  any 
object  —  what  may  be  called  the  economic  beauty  of 


152 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


the  object  —  is  best  served  by  neat  and  unambiguous 
suggestion  of  its  office  and  its  efficiency  for  the  material 
ends  of  life. 

On  this  ground,  among  objects  of  use  the  simple  and 
unadorned  article  is  aesthetically  the  best.  But  since 
the  pecuniary  canon  of  reputability  rejects  the  inex¬ 
pensive  in  articles  appropriated  to  individual  consump¬ 
tion,  the  satisfaction  of  our  craving  for  beautiful  things 
must  be  sought  by  way  of  compromise.  The  canons  of 
beauty  must  be  circumvented  by  some  contrivance 
which  will  give  evidence  of  a  reputably  wasteful  expen¬ 
diture,  at  the  same  time  that  it  meets  the  demands  of 
our  critical  sense  of  the  useful  and  the  beautiful,  or  at 
least  meets  the  demand  of  some  habit  which  has  come 
to  do  duty  in  place  of  that  sense.  Such  an  auxiliary 
sense  of  taste  is  the  sense  of  novelty ;  and  this  latter  is 
helped  out  in  its  surrogateship  by  the  curiosity  with 
which  men  view  ingenious  and  puzzling  contrivances. 
Hence  it  comes  that  most  objects  alleged  to  be  beautiful, 
and  doing  duty  as  such,  show  considerable  ingenuity  of 
design  and  are  calculated  to  puzzle  the  beholder  —  to 
bewilder  him  with  irrelevant  suggestions  and  hints 
of  the  improbable  —  at  the  same  time  that  they  give 
evidence  of  an  expenditure  of  labour  in  excess  of  what 
would  give  them  their  fullest  efficiency  for  their  osten¬ 
sible  economic  end. 

This  may  be  shown  by  an  illustration  taken  from  out¬ 
side  the  range  of  our  everyday  habits  and  everyday  con¬ 
tact,  and  so  outside  the  range  of  our  bias.  Such  are  the 
remarkable  feather  mantles  of  Hawaii,  or  the  well-known 
carved  handles  of  the  ceremonial  adzes  of  several  Poly- 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 


153 


nesian  islands.  These  are  undeniably  beautiful,  both 
in  the  sense  that  they  offer  a  pleasing  composition  of 
form,  lines,  and  colour,  and  in  the  sense  that  they  evince 
great  skill  and  ingenuity  in  design  and  construction. 
At  the  same  time  the  articles  are  manifestly  ill  fitted  to 
serve  any  other  economic  purpose.  But  it  is  not  always 
that  the  evolution  of  ingenious  and  puzzling  contrivances 
under  the  guidance  of  the  canon  of  wasted  effort  works 
out  so  happy  a  result.  The  result  is  quite  as  often  a  vir¬ 
tually  complete  suppression  of  all  elements  that  would 
bear  scrutiny  as  expressions  of  beauty,  or  of  service¬ 
ability,  and  the  substitution  of  evidences  of  misspent 
ingenuity  and  labour,  backed  by  a  conspicuous  inepti¬ 
tude  ;  until  many  of  the  objects  with  which  we  surround 
ourselves  in  everyday  life,  and  even  many  articles  of 
everyday  dress  and  ornament,  are  such  as  would  not  be 
tolerated  except  under  the  stress  of  prescriptive  tradi¬ 
tion.  Illustrations  of  this  substitution  of  ingenuity  and 
expense  in  place  of  beauty  and  serviceability  are  to  be 
seen,  for  instance,  in  domestic  architecture,  in  domestic 
art  or  fancy  work,  in  various  articles  of  apparel,  espe¬ 
cially  of  feminine  and  priestly  apparel. 

The  canon  of  beauty  requires  expression  of  the  ge¬ 
neric.  The  “novelty”  due  to  the  demands  of  conspicu¬ 
ous  waste  traverses  this  canon  of  beauty,  in  that  it 
results  in  making  the  physiognomy  of  our  objects  of 
taste  a  congeries  of  idiosyncracies  ;  and  the  idiosyn¬ 
crasies  are,  moreover,  under  the  selective  surveillance 
of  the  canon  of  expensiveness. 

This  process  of  selective  adaptation  of  designs  to  the 
end  of  conspicuous  waste,  and  the  substitution  of  pecun- 


1 54  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

iary  beauty  for  aesthetic  beauty,  has  been  especially 
effective  in  the  development  of  architecture.  It  would 
be  extremely  difficult  to  find  a  modern  civilised  residence 
or  public  building  which  can  claim  anything  better  than 
relative  inoffensiveness  in  the  eyes  of  any  one  who  will 
dissociate  the  elements  of  beauty  from  those  of  hon¬ 
orific  waste.  The  endless  variety  of  fronts  presented 
by  the  better  class  of  tenements  and  apartment  houses 
in  our  cities  is  an  endless  variety  of  architectural  dis¬ 
tress  and  of  suggestions  of  expensive  discomfort.  Con¬ 
sidered  as  objects  of  beauty,  the  dead  walls  of  the  sides 
and  back  of  these  structures,  left  untouched  by  the 
hands  of  the  artist,  are  commonly  the  best  feature  of 
the  building. 

What  has  been  said  of  the  influence  of  the  law  of 
conspicuous  waste  upon  the  canons  of  taste  will  hold 
true,  with  but  a  slight  change  of  terms,  of  its  influence 
upon  our  notions  of  the  serviceability  of  goods  for  other 
ends  than  the  aesthetic  one.  Goods  are  produced  and. 
consumed  as  a  means  to  the  fuller  unfolding  of  human 
life  ;  and  their  utility  consists,  in  the  first  instance,  in 
their  efficiency  as  means  to  this  end.  The  end  is,  in  the 
first  instance,  the  fulness  of  life  of  the  individual,  taken  in 
absolute  terms.  But  the  human  proclivity  to  emulation 
has  seized  upon  the  consumption  of  goods  as  a  means 
to  an  invidious  comparison,  and  has  thereby  invested 
consumable  goods  with  a  secondary  utility  as  evidence  of 
relative  ability  to  pay.  This  indirect  or  secondary  use 
of  consumable  goods  lends  a  honorific  character  to 
consumption,  and  presently  also  to  the  goods  which  best 
serve  this  emulative  end  of  consumption.  The  con- 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 


155 


sumption  of  expensive  goods  is  meritorious,  and  the 
goods  which  contain  an  appreciable  element  of  cost  in 
excess  of  what  goes  to  give  them  serviceability  for  their 
ostensible  mechanical  purpose  are  honorific.  The  marks 
of  superfluous  costliness  in  the  goods  are  therefore 
marks  of  worth — of  high  efficiency  for  the  indirect,  in¬ 
vidious  end  to  be  served  by  their  consumption  ;  and 
conversely,  goods  are  humilific,  and  therefore  unattrac¬ 
tive,  if  they  show  too  thrifty  an  adaptation  to  the  me¬ 
chanical  end  sought  and  do  not  include  a  margin  of 
expensiveness  on  which  to  rest  a  complacent  invidious 
comparison.  This  indirect  utility  gives  much  of  their 
value  to  the  “better”  grades  of  goods.  In  order  to 
appeal  to  the  cultivated  sense  of  utility,  an  article  must 
contain  a  modicum  of  this  indirect  utility.  Gi 

While  men  may  have  set  out  with  disapproving  an  in¬ 
expensive  manner  of  living  because  it  indicated  inability 
to  spend  much,  and  so  indicated  a  lack  of  pecuniary 
success,  they  end  by  falling  into  the  habit  of  disapprov¬ 
ing  cheap  things  as  being  intrinsically  dishonourable  or 
unworthy  because  they  are  cheap.  As  time  has  gone 
on,  each  succeeding  generation  has  received  this  tra¬ 
dition  of  meritorious  expenditure  from  the  generation 
before  it,  and  has  in  its  turn  further  elaborated  and 
fortified  the  traditional  canon  of  pecuniary  reputability 
in  goods  consumed  ;  until  we  have  finally  reached  such 
a  degree  of  conviction  as  to  the  unworthiness  of  all  in¬ 
expensive  things,  that  we  have  no  longer  any  misgivings 
in  formulating  the  maxim,  “  Cheap  and  nasty.”  So 
thoroughly  has  this  habit  of  approving  the  expensive 
and  disapproving  the  inexpensive  been  ingrained  into 


156  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

our  thinking  that  we  instinctively  insist  upon  at  least 
some  measure  of  wasteful  expensiveness  in  all  our  con¬ 
sumption,  even  in  the  case  of  goods  which  are  consumed 
in  strict  privacy  and  without  the  slightest  thought  of 
display.  We  all  feel,  sincerely  and  without  misgiving, 
that  we  are  the  more  lifted  up  in  spirit  for  having,  even 
in  the  privacy  of  our  own  household,  eaten  our  daily 
meal  by  the  help  of  hand-wrought  silver  utensils,  from 
hand-painted  china  (often  of  dubious  artistic  value)  laid 
on  high-priced  table  linen.  Any  retrogression  from  the 

standard  of  living  which  we  are  accustomed  to  regard  as 

/ 

worthy  in  this  respect  is  felt  to  be  a  grievous  violation 
of  our  human  dignity.  So,  also,  for  the  last  dozen  years 
candles  have  been  a  more  pleasing  source  of  light  at 
dinner  than  any  other.  Candle-light  is  now  softer,  less 
distressing  to  well-bred  eyes,  than  oil,  gas,  or  electric 
light.  The  same  could  not  have  been  said  thirty  years 
ago,  when  candles  were,  or  recently  had  been,  the 
cheapest  available  light  for  domestic  use.  Nor  are 
candles  even  now  found  to  give  an  acceptable  or  effec¬ 
tive  light  for  any  other  than  a  ceremonial  illumination. 

A  political  sage  still  living  has  summed  up  the  con¬ 
clusion  of  this  whole  matter  in  the  dictum  :  “  A  cheap 
coat  makes  a  cheap  man,”  and  there  is  probably  no  one 
who  does  not  feel  the  convincing  force  of  the  maxim. 

The  habit  of  looking  for  the  marks  of  superfluous  ex¬ 
pensiveness  in  goods,  and  of  requiring  that  all  goods 
should  afford  some  utility  of  the  indirect  or  invidious 
sort,  leads  to  a  change  in  the  standards  by  which  the 
utility  of  goods  is  gauged.  The  honorific  element  and 
the  element  of  brute  efficiency  are  not  held  apart  in  the 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 


157 


consumer’s  appreciation  of  commodities,  and  the  two  to¬ 
gether  go  to  make  up  the  unanalysed  aggregate  servicea¬ 
bility  of  the  goods.  Under  the  resulting  standard  of 
serviceability,  no  article  will  pass  muster  on  the 
strength  of  material  sufficiency  alone.  In  order  to  com¬ 
pleteness  and  full  acceptability  to  the  consumer  it 
must  also  show  the  honorific  element.  It  results  that 
the  producers  of  articles  of  consumption  direct  their 
efforts  to  the  production  of  goods  that  shall  meet  this 
demand  for  the  honorific  element.  They  will  do  this 
with  all  the  more  alacrity  and  effect,  since  they  are 
themselves  under  the  dominance  of  the  same  standard 
of  worth  in  goods,  and  would  be  sincerely  grieved  at  the 
sight  of  goods  which  lack  the  proper  honorific  finish. 
Hence  it  has  come  about  that  there  are  to-day  no  goods 
supplied  in  any  trade  which  do  not  contain  the  honorific 
element  in  greater  or  less  degree.  Any  consumer  who 
might,  Diogenes-like,  insist  on  the  elimination  of  all 
honorific  or  wasteful  elements  from  his  consumption, 
would  be  unable  to  supply  his  most  trivial  wants  in  the 
modern  market.  Indeed,  even  if  he  resorted  to  supply¬ 
ing  his  wants  directly  by  his  own  efforts,  he  would  find 
it  difficult  if  not  impossible  to  divest  himself  of  the  cur¬ 
rent  habits  of  thought  on  this  head  ;  so  that  he  could 
scarcely  compass  a  supply  of  the  necessaries  of  life  for 
a  day’s  consumption  without  instinctively  and  by  over¬ 
sight  incorporating  in  his  home-made  product  something 
of  this  honorific,  quasi-decorative  element  of  wasted 
labour. 

It  is  notorious  that  in  their  selection  of  serviceable 
goods  in  the  retail  market,  purchasers  are  guided  more 


158  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

by  the  finish  and  workmanship  of  the  goods  than  by 
any  marks  of  substantial  serviceability.  Goods,  in 
order  to  sell,  must  have  some  appreciable  amount  of 
labour  spent  in  giving  them  the  marks  of  decent  expen¬ 
siveness,  in  addition  to  what  goes  to  give  them  effi¬ 
ciency  for  the  material  use  which  they  are  to  serve. 
This  habit  of  making  obvious  costliness  a  canon  of  ser¬ 
viceability  of  course  acts  to  enhance  the  aggregate  cost 
of  articles  of  consumption.  It  puts  us  on  our  guard 
against  cheapness  by  identifying  merit  in  some  degree 
with  cost.  There  is  ordinarily  a  consistent  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  consumer  to  obtain  goods  of  the  required  ser¬ 
viceability  at  as  advantageous  a  bargain  as  may  be ;  but 
the  conventional  requirement  of  obvious  costliness,  as  a 
voucher  and  a  constituent  of  the  serviceability  of  the 
goods,  leads  him  to  reject  as  under  grade  such  goods  as 
do  not  contain  a  large  element  of  conspicuous  waste. 

It  is  to  be  added  that  a  large  share  of  those  features 
of  consumable  goods  which  figure  in  popular  apprehen¬ 
sion  as  marks  of  serviceability,  and  to  which  reference 
is  here  had  as  elements  of  conspicuous  waste,  commend 
themselves  to  the  consumer  also  on  other  grounds  than 
that  of  expensiveness  alone.  They  usually  give  evi¬ 
dence  of  skill  and  effective  workmanship,  even  if  they 
do  not  contribute  to  the  substantial  serviceability  of  the 
goods  ;  and  it  is  no  doubt  largely  on  some  such  ground 
that  any  particular  mark  of  honorific  serviceability  first 
comes  into  vogue  and  afterward  maintains  its  footing  as 
a  normal  constituent  element  of  the  worth  of  an  article. 
A  display  of  efficient  workmanship  is  pleasing  simply  as 
such,  even  where  its  remoter,  for  the  time  unconsidered 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 


159 


outcome  is  futile.  There  is  a  gratification  of  the  artistic 
sense  in  the  contemplation  of  skilful  work.  But  it  is 
also  to  be  added  that  no  such  evidence  of  skilful  work¬ 
manship,  or  of  ingenious  and  effective  adaptation  of 
means  to  end,  will,  in  the  long  run,  enjoy  the  approba¬ 
tion  of  the  modern  civilised  consumer  unless  it  has  the 
sanction  of  the  canon  of  conspicuous  waste. 

The  position  here  taken  is  enforced  in  a  felicitous  ' 
manner  by  the  place  assigned  in  the  economy  of  con¬ 
sumption  to  machine  products.  The  point  of  material 
difference  between  machine-made  goods  and  the  hand- 
wrought  goods  which  serve  the  same  purposes  is,  ordi¬ 
narily,  that  the  former  serve  their  primary  purpose  more 
adequately.  They  are  a  more  perfect  product  —  show 
a  more  perfect  adaptation  of  means  to  end.  This  does 
not  save  them  from  disesteem  and  deprecation,  for  they 
fall  short  under  the  test  of  honorific  waste.  Hand  labour 
is  a  more  wasteful  method  of  production  ;  hence  the 
goods  turned  out  by  this  method  are  more  serviceable 
for  the  purpose  of  pecuniary  reputability ;  hence  the 
marks  of  hand  labour  come  to  be  honorific,  and  the  goods 
which  exhibit  these  marks  take  rank  as  of  higher  grade 
than  the  corresponding  machine  product.  Commonly, 
if  not  invariably,  the  honorific  marks  of  hand  labour  are 
certain  imperfections  and  irregularities  in  the  lines  of 
the  hand-wrought  article,  showing  where  the  workman 
has  fallen  short  in  the  execution  of  the  design.  The 
ground  of  the  superiority  of  hand-wrought  goods,  there¬ 
fore,  is  a  certain  margin  of  crudeness.  This  margin 
must  never  be  so  wide  as  to  show  bungling  workmanship, 
since  that  would  be  evidence  of  low  cost,  nor  so  narrow 


160  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

as  to  suggest  the  ideal  precision  attained  only  by  the 
machine,  for  that  would  be  evidence  of  low  cost. 

The  appreciation  of  those  evidences  of  honorific  crude¬ 
ness  to  which  hand-wrought  goods  owe  their  superior 
worth  and  charm  in  the  eyes  of  well-bred  people  is 
a  matter  of  nice  discrimination.  It  requires  training 
and  the  formation  of  right  habits  of  thought  with  re¬ 
spect  to  what  may  be  called  the  physiognomy  of  goods. 
Machine-made  goods  of  daily  use  are  often  admired  and 
preferred  precisely  on  account  of  their  excessive  per¬ 
fection  by  the  vulgar  and  the  underbred  who  have  not 
given  due  thought  to  the  punctilios  of  elegant  consump¬ 
tion.  The  ceremonial  inferiority  of  machine  products 
goes  to  show  that  the  perfection  of  skill  and  workman¬ 
ship  embodied  in  any  costly  innovations  in  the  finish 
of  goods  is  not  sufficient  of  itself  to  secure  them  accept¬ 
ance  and  permanent  favour.  The  innovation  must  have 
the  support  of  the  canon  of  conspicuous  waste.  Any 
feature  in  the  physiognomy  of  goods,  however  pleasing 
in  itself,  and  however  well  it  may  approve  itself  to  the 
taste  for  effective  work,  will  not  be  tolerated  if  it  proves 
obnoxious  to  this  norm  of  pecuniary  reputability. 

The  ceremonial  inferiority  or  uncleanness  in  consum¬ 
able  goods  due  to  “  commonness,”  or  in  other  words  to 
their  slight  cost  of  production,  has  been  taken  very 
seriously  by  many  persons.  The  objection  to  machine 
products  is  often  formulated  as  an  objection  to  the 
commonness  of  such  goods.  What  is  common  is  within 
the  (pecuniary)  reach  of  many  people.  Its  consump¬ 
tion  is  therefore  not  honorific,  since  it  does  not  serve 
the  purpose  of  a  favourable  invidious  comparison  with 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste 


161 


other  consumers.  Hence  the  consumption,  or  even  the 
sight  of  such  goods,  is  inseparable  from  an  odious  sug¬ 
gestion  of  the  lower  levels  of  human  life,  and  one  comes 
away  from  their  contemplation  with  a  pervading  sense 
of  meanness  that  is  extremely  distasteful  and  depressing 
to  a  person  of  sensibility.  In  persons  whose  tastes 
assert  themselves  imperiously,  and  who  have  not  the 
gift,  habit,  or  incentive  to  discriminate  between  the 
grounds  of  their  various  judgments  of  taste,  the  deliv¬ 
erances  of  the  sense  of  the  honorific  coalesce  with  those 
of  the  sense  of  beauty  and  of  the  sense  of  serviceability 
—  in  the  manner  already  spoken  of;  the  resulting  com¬ 
posite  valuation  serves  as  a  judgment  of  the  object’s 
beauty  or  its  serviceability,  according  as  the  valuer’s 
bias  or  interest  inclines  him  to  apprehend  the  object  in 
the  one  or  the  other  of  these  aspects.  It  follows  not 
infrequently  that  the  marks  of  cheapness  or  common¬ 
ness  are  accepted  as  definitive  marks  of  artistic  unfitness, 
and  a  code  or  schedule  of  aesthetic  proprieties  on  the 
one  hand,  and  of  aesthetic  abominations  on  the  other,  is 
constructed  on  this  basis  for  guidance  in  questions  of 
taste. 

As  has  already  been  pointed  out,  the  cheap,  and 
therefore  indecorous,  articles  of  daily  consumption  in 
modern  industrial  communities  are  commonly  machine 
products;  and  the  generic  feature  of  the  physiognomy 
of  machine-made  goods  as  compared  with  the  hand- 
wrought  article  is  their  greater  perfection  in  workman¬ 
ship  and  greater  accuracy  in  the  detail  execution  of  the 
design.  Hence  it  comes  about  that  the  visible  imper¬ 
fections  of  the  hand-wrought  goods,  being  honorific,  are 


M 


1 62  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

accounted  marks  of  superiority  in  point  of  beauty,  or 
serviceability,  or  both.  Hence  has  arisen  that  exaltation 
of  the  defective,  of  which  John  Ruskin  and  William 
Morris  were  such  eager  spokesmen  in  their  time;  and 
on  this  ground  their  propaganda  of  crudity  and  wasted 
effort  has  been  taken  up  and  carried  forward  since  their 
time.  And  hence  also  the  propaganda  for  a  return  to 
handicraft  and  household  industry.  So  much  of  the 
work  and  speculations  of  this  group  of  men  as  fairly 
comes  under  the  characterisation  here  given  would  have 
been  impossible  at  a  time  when  the  visibly  more  perfect 
goods  were  not  the  cheaper. 

It  is  of  course  only  as  to  the  economic  value  of  this 
school  of  aesthetic  teaching  that  anything  is  intended 
to  be  said  or  can  be  said  here.  What  is  said  is  not  to 
be  taken  in  the  sense  of  depreciation,  but  chiefly  as  a 
characterisation  of  the  tendency  of  this  teaching  in  its 
effect  on  consumption  and  on  the  production  of  con¬ 
sumable  goods. 

The  manner  in  which  the  bias  of  this  growth  of  taste 
has  worked  itself  out  in  production  is  perhaps  most 
cogently  exemplified  in  the  book  manufacture  with 
which  Morris  busied  himself  during  the  later  years  of 
his  life;  but  what  holds  true  of  the  work  of  the  Kelm- 
scott  Press  in  an  eminent  degree,  holds. true  with  but 
slightly  abated  force  when  applied  to  latter-day  artistic 
book-making  generally, — as  to  type,  paper,  illustration, 
binding  materials,  and  binder’s  work.  The  claims  to 
excellence  put  forward  by  the  later  products  of  the 
book-maker’s  industry  rest  in  some  measure  on  the 
degree  of  its  approximation  to  the  crudities  of  the  time 


Pectniiary  Canons  of  Taste  163 

when  the  work  of  book-making  was  a  doubtful  struggle 
with  refractory  materials  carried  on  by  means  of  insuf¬ 
ficient  appliances.  These  products,  since  they  require 
hand  labour,  are  more  expensive;  they  are  also  less  con¬ 
venient  for  use  than  the  books  turned  out  with  a  view 
to  serviceability  alone ;  they  therefore  argue  ability  on 
the  part  of  the  purchaser  to  consume  freely,  as  well  as 
ability  to  waste  time  and  effort.  It  is  on  this  basis  that 
the  printers  of  to-day  are  returning  to  “old-style,”  and 
other  more  or  less  obsolete  styles  of  type  which  are  less 
legible  and  give  a  cruder  appearance  to  the  page  than 
the  “modern.”  Even  a  scientific  periodical,  with  osten¬ 
sibly  no  purpose  but  the  most  effective  presentation  of 
matter  with  which  its  science  is  concerned,  will  concede 
so  much  to  the  demands  of  this  pecuniary  beauty  as  to 
publish  its  scientific  discussions  in  old-style  type,  on 
laid  paper,  and  with  uncut  edges.  But  books  which  are 
not  ostensibly  concerned  with  the  effective  presentation 
of  their  contents  alone,  of  course  go  farther  in  this  direc¬ 
tion.  Here  we  have  a  somewhat  cruder  type,  printed 
on  hand-laid,  deckel-edged  paper,  with  excessive  mar¬ 
gins  and  uncut  leaves,  with  bindings  of  a  painstaking 
crudeness  and  elaborate  ineptitude.  The  Kelmscott 
Press  reduced  the  matter  to  an  absurdity  —  as  seen 
from  the  point  of  view  of  brute  serviceability  alone  —  by 
issuing  books  for  modern  use,  edited  with  the  obsolete 
spelling,  printed  in  black-letter,  and  bound  in  limp 
vellum  fitted  with  thongs.  As  a  further  characteristic 
feature  which  fixes  the  economic  place  of  artistic  book¬ 
making,  there  is  the  fact  that  these  more  elegant  books 
are,  at  their  best,  printed  in  limited  editions.  A  limited 


164  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

edition  is  in  effect  a  guarantee  —  somewhat  crude,  it  is 
true  —  that  this  book  is  scarce  and  that  it  therefore  is 
costly  and  lends  pecuniary  distinction  to  its  consumer. 

The  special  attractiveness  of  these  book-products  to 
the  book-buyer  of  cultivated  taste  lies,  of  course,  not 
in  a  conscious,  naive  recognition  of  their  costliness  and 
superior  clumsiness.  Here,  as  in  the  parallel  case  of 
the  superiority  of  hand-wrought  articles  over  machine 
products,  the  conscious  ground  of  preference  is  an 
intrinsic  excellence  imputed  to  the  costlier  and  more 
awkward  article.  The  superior  excellence  imputed  to 
the  book  which  imitates  the  products  of  antique  and 
obsolete  processes  is  conceived  to  be  chiefly  a  superior 
utility  in  the  aesthetic  respect ;  but  it  is  not  unusual 
to  find  a  well-bred  book-lover  insisting  that  the  clumsier 
product  is  also  more  serviceable  as  a  vehicle  of  printed 
speech.  So  far  as  regards  the  superior  aesthetic  value 
of  the  decadent  book,  the  chances  are  that  the  book- 
lover’s  contention  has  some  ground.  The  book  is 
designed  with  an  eye  single  to  its  beauty,  and  the 
result  is  commonly  some  measure  of  success  on  the 
part  of  the  designer.  What  is  insisted  on  here,  how¬ 
ever,  is  that  the  canon  of  taste  under  which  the  de¬ 
signer  works  is  a  canon  formed  under  the  surveillance 
of  the  law  of  conspicuous  waste,  and  that  this  law  acts 
selectively  to  eliminate  any  canon  of  taste  that  does 
not  conform  to  its  demands.  That  is  to  say,  while  the 
decadent  book  may  be  beautiful,  the  limits  within 
which  the  designer  may  work  are  fixed  by  requirements 
of  a  non-aesthetic  kind.  The  product,  if  it  is  beautiful, 
must  also  at  the  same  time  be  costly  and  ill  adapted 


Pecuniary  Canons  of  Taste  165 

to  its  ostensible  use.  This  mandatory  canon  of  taste 
in  the  case  of  the  book-designer,  however,  is  not  shaped 
entirely  by  the  law  of  waste  in  its  first  form ;  the 
canon  is  to  some  extent  shaped  in  conformity  to  that 
secondary  expression  of  the  predatory  temperament, 
veneration  for  the  archaic  or  obsolete,  which  in  one 
of  its  special  developments  is  called  classicism. 

In  aesthetic  theory  it  might  be  extremely  difficult, 
if  not  quite  impracticable,  to  draw  a  line  between  the 
canon  of  classicism,  or  regard  for  the  archaic,  and  the 
canon  of  beauty.  For  the  aesthetic  purpose  such  a 
distinction  need  scarcely  be  drawn,  and  indeed  it  need 
not  exist.  For  a  theory  of  taste  the  expression  of  an 
accepted  ideal  of  archaism,  on  whatever  basis  it  may 
have  been  accepted,  is  perhaps  best  rated  as  an  element 
of  beauty;  there  need  be  no  question  of  its  legitima¬ 
tion.  But  for  the  present  purpose  —  for  the  purpose 
of  determining  what  economic  grounds  are  present  in 
the  accepted  canons  of  taste  and  what  is  their  signifi¬ 
cance  for  the  distribution  and  consumption  of  goods  — 
the  distinction  is  not  similarly  beside  the  point. 

The  position  of  machine  products  in  the  civilised 
scheme  of  consumption  serves  to  point  out  the  nature 
of  the  relation  which  subsists  between  the  canon  of 
conspicuous  waste  and  the  code  of  proprieties  in  con¬ 
sumption.  Neither  in  matters  of  art  and  taste  proper, 
nor  as  regards  the  current  sense  of  the  serviceability 
of  goods,  does  this  canon  act  as  a  principle  of  innova¬ 
tion  or  initiative.  It  does  not  go  into  the  future  as 
a  creative  principle  which  makes  innovations  and  adds 
new  items  of  consumption  and  new  elements  of  cost. 


1 66  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

The  principle  in  question  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  a  nega¬ 
tive  rather  than  a  positive  law.  It  is  a  regulative 
rather  than  a  creative  principle.  It  very  rarely  ini¬ 
tiates  or  originates  any  usage  or  custom  directly.  Its 
action  is  selective  only.  Conspicuous  wastefulness  does 
not  directly  afford  ground  for  variation  and  growth, 
but  conformity  to  its  requirements  is  a  condition  to 
the  survival  of  such  innovations  as  may  be  made  on 
other  grounds.  In  whatever  way  usages  and  customs 
and  methods  of  expenditure  arise,  they  are  all  subject 
to  the  selective  action  of  this  norm  of  reputability ;  and 
the  degree  in  which  they  conform  to  its  requirements 
is  a  test  of  their  fitness  to  survive  in  the  competition 
with  other  similar  usages  and  customs.  Other  things 
being  equal,  the  more  obviously  wasteful  usage  or 
method  stands  the  better  chance  of  survival  under  this 
law.  The  law  of  conspicuous  waste  does  not  account 
for  the  origin  of  variations,  but.  only  for  the  persistence 
of  such  forms  as  are  fit  to  survive  under  its  dominance. 
It  acts  to  conserve  the  fit,  not  to  originate  the  accept¬ 
able.  Its  office  is  to  prove  all  things  and  to  hold  fast 
that  which  is  good  for  its  purpose. 


CHAPTER  VII 


Dress  as  an  Expression  of  the  Pecuniary 

Culture 

It  will  be  in  place,  by  way  of  illustration,  to  show  in 
some  detail  how  the  economic  principles  so  far  set  forth 
apply  to  everyday  facts  in  some  one  direction  of  the  life 
process.  For  this  purpose  no  line  of  consumption  af¬ 
fords  a  more  apt  illustration  than  expenditure  on  dress. 
It  is  especially  the  rule  of  the  conspicuous  waste  of 
goods  that  finds  expression  in  dress,  although  the  other, 
related  principles  of  pecuniary  repute  are  also  exempli¬ 
fied  in  the  same  contrivances.  Other  methods  of  put¬ 
ting  qne’s  pecuniary  standing  in  evidence  serve  their 
end  effectually,  and  other  methods  are  in  vogue  always 
and  everywhere ;  but  expenditure  on  dress  has  this 
advantage  over  most  other  methods,  that  our  apparel  is 
always  in  evidence  and  affords  an  indication  of  our 
pecuniary  standing  to  all  observers  at  the  first  glance. 
It  is  also  true  that  admitted  expenditure  for  display  is 
more  obviously  present,  and  is,  perhaps,  more  univer¬ 
sally  practised  in  the  matter  of  dress  than  in  any  other 
line  of  consumption.  No  one  finds  difficulty  in  assent¬ 
ing  to  the  commonplace  that  the  greater  part  of  the 
expenditure  incurred  by  all  classes  for  apparel  is  in¬ 
curred  for  the  sake  of  a  respectable  appearance  rather 

167 


1 68  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

than  for  the  protection  of  the  person.  And  probably  at 
no  other  point  is  the  sense  of  shabbiness  so  keenly  felt 
as  it  is  if  we  fall  short  of  the  standard  set  by  social 
usage  in  this  matter  of  dress.  It  is  true  of  dress  in 
even  a  higher  degree  than  of  most  other  items  of  con¬ 
sumption,  that  people  will  undergo  a  very  consider¬ 
able  degree  of  privation  in  the  comforts  or  the  neces¬ 
saries  of  life  in  order  to  afford  what  is  considered  a 
decent  amount  of  wasteful  consumption ;  so  that  it  is 
by  no  means  an  uncommon  occurrence,  in  an  inclement 
climate,  for  people  to  go  ill  clad  in  order  to  appear  well 
dressed.  And  the  commercial  value  of  the  goods  used 
for  clothing  in  any  modern  community  is  made  up  to  a 
much  larger  extent  of  the  fashionableness,  the  reputa¬ 
bility  of  the  goods  than  of  the  mechanical  service  which 
they  render  in  clothing  the  person  of  the  wearer.  The 
need  of  dress  is  eminently  a  “  higher  ”  or  spiritual  need. 

This  spiritual  need  of  dress  is  not  wholly,  nor  even 
chiefly,  a  naive  propensity  for  display  of  expenditure. 
The  law  of  conspicuous  waste  guides  consumption  in 
apparel,  as  in  other  things,  chiefly  at  the  second  re¬ 
move,  by  shaping  the  canons  of  taste  and  decency.  In 
the  common  run  of  cases  the  conscious  motive  of  the 
wearer  or  purchaser  of  conspicuously  wasteful  apparel 
is  the  need  of  conforming  to  established  usage,  and  of 
living  up  to  the  accredited  standard  of  taste  and  reputa¬ 
bility.  It  is  not  only  that  one  must  be  guided  by  the 
code  of  proprieties  in  dress  in  order  to  avoid  the  morti¬ 
fication  that  comes  of  unfavourable  notice  and  comment, 
though  that  motive  in  itself  counts  for  a  great  deal ; 
but  besides  that,  the  requirement  of  expensiveness  is  so 


Dress  as  an  Expression  of  the  Pecuniary  Culture  169 

ingrained  into  our  habits  of  thought  in  matters  of  dress 
that  any  other  than  expensive  apparel  is  instinctively 
odious  to  us.  Without  reflection  or  analysis,  we  feel 
that  what  is  inexpensive  is  unworthy.  “  A  cheap  coat 
makes  a  cheap  man.”  “Cheap  and  nasty”  is  recog¬ 
nised  to  hold  true  in  dress  with  even  less  mitigation 
than  in  other  lines  of  consumption.  On  the  ground 
both  of  taste  and  of  serviceability,  an  inexpensive  arti¬ 
cle  of  apparel  is  held  to  be  inferior,  under  the  maxim 
“cheap  and  nasty.”  We  find  things  beautiful,  as  well 
as  serviceable,  somewhat  in  proportion  as  they  are 
costly.  With  few  and  inconsequential  exceptions,  we 
all  find  a  costly  hand-wrought  article  of  apparel  much 
preferable,  in  point  of  beauty  and  of  serviceability,  to  a 
less  expensive  imitation  of  it,  however  cleverly  the 
spurious  article  may  imitate  the  costly  original ;  and 
what  offends  our  sensibilities  in  the  spurious  article  is 
not  that  it  falls  short  in  form  or  colour,  or,  indeed,  in 
visual  effect  in  any  way.  The  offensive  object  may  be 
so  close  an  imitation  as  to  defy  any  but  the  closest 
scrutiny ;  and  yet  so  soon  as  the  counterfeit  is  detected, 
its  aesthetic  value,  and  its  commercial  value  as  well, 
declines  precipitately.  Not  only  that,  but  it  may  be 
asserted  with  but  small  risk  of  contradiction  that  the 
aesthetic  value  of  a  detected  counterfeit  in  dress  declines 
somewhat  in  the  same  proportion  as  the  counterfeit  is 
cheaper  than  its  original.  It  loses  caste  aesthetically 
because  it  falls  to  a  lower  pecuniary  grade. 

But  the  function  of  dress  as  an  evidence  of  ability  to 
pay  does  not  end  with  simply  showing  that  the  wearer 
consumes  valuable  goods  in  excess  of  what  is  required 


170  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

for  physical  comfort.  Simple  conspicuous  waste  of 
goods  is  effective  and  gratifying  as  far  as  it  goes  ;  it  is 
good  prima  facie  evidence  of  pecuniary  success,  and 
consequently  prima  facie  evidence  of  social  worth. 
But  dress  has  subtler  and  more  far-reaching  possibili¬ 
ties  than  this  crude,  first-hand  evidence  of  wasteful  con¬ 
sumption  only.  If,  in  addition  to  showing  that  the 
wearer  can  afford  to  consume  freely  and  uneconomi- 
cally,  it  can  also  be  shown  in  the  same  stroke  that  he  or 
she  is  not  under  the  necessity  of  earning  a  livelihood, 
the  evidence  of  social  worth  is  enhanced  in  a  very  con¬ 
siderable  degree.  Our  dress,  therefore,  in  order  to 
serve  its  purpose  effectually,  should  not  only  be  expen¬ 
sive,  but  it  should  also  make  plain  to  all  observers  that 
the  wearer  is  not  engaged  in  any  kind  of  productive 
labour.  In  the  evolutionary  process  by  which  our 
system  of  dress  has  been  elaborated  into  its  present 
admirably  perfect  adaptation  to  its  purpose,  this  sub¬ 
sidiary  line  of  evidence  has  received  due  attention.  A 
detailed  examination  of  what  passes  in  popular  appre¬ 
hension  for  elegant  apparel  will  show  that  it  is  contrived 
at  every  point  to  convey  the  impression  that  the  wearer 
does  not  habitually  put  forth  any  useful  effort.  It  goes 
without  saying  that  no  apparel  can  be  considered  ele¬ 
gant,  or  even  decent,  if  it  shows  the  effect  of  manual 
labour  on  the  part  of  the  wearer,  in  the  way  of  soil  or 
wear.  The  pleasing  effect  of  neat  and  spotless  gar¬ 
ments  is  chiefly,  if  not  altogether,  due  to  their  carrying 
the  suggestion  of  leisure  —  exemption  from  personal 
contact  with  industrial  processes  of  any  kind.  Much 
of  the  charm  that  invests  the  patent-leather  shoe,  the 


Dress  as  an  Expression  of  the  Pecuniary  Culture  17 1 

stainless  linen,  the  lustrous  cylindrical  hat,  and  the 
walking-stick,  which  so  greatly  enhance  the  inborn 
dignity  of  a  gentleman,  comes  of  their  pointedly  sug¬ 
gesting  that  the  wearer  cannot  when  so  attired  bear  a 
hand  in  any  employment  that  is  directly  and  immedi¬ 
ately  of  any  human  use.  Elegant  dress  serves  its  pur¬ 
pose  of  elegance  not  only  in  that  it  is  expensive,  but 
also  because  it  is  the  insignia  of  leisure.  It  not  only 
shows  that  the  wearer  is  able  to  consume  a  relatively 
large  value,  but  it  argues  at  the  same  time  that  he  con¬ 
sumes  without  producing. 

The  dress  of  women  goes  even  farther  than  that  of 
men  in  the  way  of  demonstrating  the  wearer’s  absti¬ 
nence  from  productive  employment.  It  needs  no  argu¬ 
ment  to  enforce  the  generalisation  that  the  more  elegant 
styles  of  feminine  bonnets  go  even  farther  towards  mak¬ 
ing  work  impossible  than  does  the  man’s  high  hat. 
The  woman’s  shoe  adds  the  so-called  French  heel  to 
the  evidence  of  enforced  leisure  afforded  by  its  polish  ; 
because  this  high  heel  obviously  makes  any,  even  the 
simplest  and  most  necessary  manual  work,  extremely 
difficult.  The  like  is  true  even  in  a  higher  degree  of 
the  skirt  and  the  rest  of  the  drapery  which  character¬ 
ises  woman’s  dress.  The  substantial  reason  for  our 
tenacious  attachment  to  the  skirt  is  just  this  :  it  is  ex¬ 
pensive  and  it  hampers  the  wearer  at  every  turn  and 
incapacitates  her  for  all  useful  exertion.  The  like  is 
true  of  the  feminine  custom  of  wearing  the  hair  exces¬ 
sively  long. 

But  the  woman’s  apparel  not  only  goes  beyond  that 
of  the  modern  man  in  the  degree  in  which  it  argues 


172  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

exemption  from  labour  ;  it  also  adds  a  peculiar  and 
highly  characteristic  feature  which  differs  in  kind  from 
anything  habitually  practised  by  the  men.  This  feature 
is  the  class  of  contrivances  of  which  the  corset  is  the 
typical  example.  The  corset  is,  in  economic  theory, 
substantially  a  mutilation,  undergone  for  the  purpose  of 
lowering  the  subject’s  vitality  and  rendering  her  per¬ 
manently  and  obviously  unfit  for  work.  It  is  true,  the 
corset  impairs  the  personal  attractions  of  the  wearer, 
but  the  loss  suffered  on  that  score  is  offset  by  the  gain 
in  reputability  which  comes  of  her  visibly  increased 
expensiveness  and  infirmity.  It  may  broadly  be  set 
down  that  the  womanliness  of  woman’s  apparel  resolves 
itself,  in  point  of  substantial  fact,  into  the  more  effec¬ 
tive  hindrance  to  useful  exertion  offered  by  the  gar¬ 
ments  peculiar  to  women.  This  difference  between 
masculine  and  feminine  apparel  is  here  simply  pointed 
out  as  a  characteristic  feature.  The  ground  of  its 
occurrence  will  be  discussed  presently. 

So  far,  then,  we  have,  as  the  great  and  dominant 
norm  of  dress,  the  broad  principle  of  conspicuous  waste. 
Subsidiary  to  this  principle,  and  as  a  corollary  under  it, 
we  get  as  a  second  norm  the  principle  of  conspicuous 
leisure.  In  dress  construction  this  norm  works  out  in 
the  shape  of  divers  contrivances  going  to  show  that  the 
wearer  does  not,  and  as  far  as  it  may  conveniently  be 
shown,  can  not  engage  in  productive  labour.  Beyond 
these  two  principles  there  is  a  third  of  scarcely  less 
constraining  force,  which  will  occur  to  any  one  who  re¬ 
flects  at  all  on  the  subject.  Dress  must  not  only  be 
conspicuously  expensive  and  inconvenient ;  it  must  at 


Dress  as  an  Expression  of  the  Pecuniary  Culture  173 

the  same  time  be  up  to  date.  No  explanation  at  all 
satisfactory  has  hitherto  been  offered  of  the  phenomenon 
of  changing  fashions.  The  imperative  requirement  of 
dressing  in  the  latest  accredited  manner,  as  well  as  the 
fact  that  this  accredited  fashion  constantly  changes 
from  season  to  season,  is  sufficiently  familiar  to  every 
one,  but  the  theory  of  this  flux  and  change  has  not  been 
worked  out.  We  may  of  course  say,  with  perfect  con¬ 
sistency  and  truthfulness,  that  this  principle  of  novelty 
is  another  corollary  under  the  law  of  conspicuous  waste. 
Obviously,  if  each  garment  is  permitted  to  serve  for 
but  a  brief  term,  and  if  none  of  last  season’s  apparel  is 
carried  over  and  made  further  use  of  during  the  present 
season,  the  wasteful  expenditure  on  dress  is  greatly 
increased.  This  is  good  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  it  is  nega¬ 
tive  only.  Pretty  much  all  that  this  consideration  war¬ 
rants  us  in  saying  is  that  the  norm  of  conspicuous 
waste  exercises  a  controlling  surveillance  in  all  matters 
of  dress,  so  that  any  change  in  the  fashions  must  con¬ 
form  to  the  requirement  of  wastefulness ;  it  leaves  un¬ 
answered  the  question  as  to  the  motive  for  making  and 
accepting  a  change  in  the  prevailing  styles,  and  it  also 
fails  to  explain  why  conformity  to  a  given  style  at  a 
given  time  is  so  imperatively  necessary  as  we  know  it 
to  be. 

For  a  creative  principle,  capable  of  serving  as  motive 
to  invention  and  innovation  in  fashions,  we  shall  have 
to  go  back  to  the  primitive,  non-economic  motive  with 
which  apparel  originated,  —  the  motive  of  adornment. 
Without  going  into  an  extended  discussion  of  how  and 
why  this  motive  asserts  itself  under  the  guidance  of  the 


174  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

law  of  expensiveness,  it  may  be  stated  broadly  that  each 
successive  innovation  in  the  fashions  is  an  effort  to  reach 
some  form  of  display  which  shall  be  more  acceptable  to 
our  sense  of  form  and  colour  or  of  effectiveness,  than 
that  which  it  displaces.  The  changing  styles  are  the 
expression  of  a  restless  search  for  something  which 
shall  commend  itself  to  our  aesthetic  sense  ;  but  as  each 
innovation  is  subject  to  the  selective  action  of  the  norm 
of  conspicuous  waste,  the  range  within  which  innova¬ 
tion  can  take  place  is  somewhat  restricted.  The  inno¬ 
vation  must  not  only  be  more  beautiful,  or  perhaps 
oftener  less  offensive,  than  that  which  it  displaces,  but 
it  must  also  come  up  to  the  accepted  standard  of 
expensiveness. 

It  would  seem  at  first  sight  that  the  result  of  such 
an  unremitting  struggle  to  attain  the  beautiful  in  dress 
should  be  a  gradual  approach  to  artistic  perfection.  We 
might  naturally  expect  that  the  fashions  should  show  a 
well-marked  trend  in  the  direction  of  some  one  or  more 
types  of  apparel  eminently  becoming  to  the  human 
form  ;  and  we  might  even  feel  that  we  have  substantial 
ground  for  the  hope  that  to-day,  after  all  the  ingenuity 
and  effort  which  has  been  spent  on  dress  these  many 
years,  the  fashions  should  have  achieved  a  relative  per¬ 
fection  and  a  relative  stability,  closely  approximating  to 
a  permanently  tenable  artistic  ideal.  But  such  is  not 
the  case.  It  would  be  very  hazardous  indeed  to  assert 
that  the  styles  of  to-day  are  intrinsically  more  becoming 
than  those  of  ten  years  ago,  or  than  those  of  twenty,  or 
fifty,  or  one  hundred  years  ago.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  assertion  freely  goes  uncontradicted  that  styles  in 


Dress  as  an  Expression  of  the  Pecuniary  Culture  175 

vogue  two  thousand  years  ago  are  more  becoming  than 
the  most  elaborate  and  painstaking  constructions  of 
to-day. 

The  explanation  of  the  fashions  just  offered,  then,  does 
not  fully  explain,  and  we  shall  have  to  look  farther.  It 
is  well  known  that  certain  relatively  stable  styles  and 
types  of  costume  have  been  worked  out  in  various  parts 
of  the  world;  as,  for  instance,  among  the  Japanese, 
Chinese,  and  other  Oriental  nations  ;  likewise  among 
the  Greeks,  Romans,  and  other  Eastern  peoples  of 
antiquity ;  so  also,  in  later  times,  among  the  peasants 
of  nearly  every  country  of  Europe.  These  national 
or  popular  costumes  are  in  most  cases  adjudged  by  com¬ 
petent  critics  to  be  more  becoming,  more  artistic,  than 
the  fluctuating  styles  of  modern  civilised  apparel.  At 
the  same  time  they  are  also,  at  least  usually,  less  ob¬ 
viously  wasteful ;  that  is  to  say,  other  elements  than 
that  of  a  display  of  expense  are  more  readily  detected 
in  their  structure. 

These  relatively  stable  costumes  are,  commonly,  pretty 
strictly  and  narrowly  localised,  and  they  vary  by  slight 
and  systematic  gradations  from  place  to  place.  They 
have  in  every  case  been  worked  out  by  peoples  or 
classes  which  are  poorer  than  we,  and  especially  they 
belong  in  countries  and  localities  and  times  where  the 
population,  or  at  least  the  class  to  which  the  costume 
in  question  belongs,  is  relatively  homogeneous,  stable, 
and  immobile.  That  is  to  say,  stable  costumes  which 
will  bear  the  test  of  time  and  perspective  are  worked 
out  under  circumstances  where  the  norm  of  conspicuous 
waste  asserts  itself  less  imperatively  than  it  does  in  the 


i/6  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

large  modern  civilised  cities,  whose  relatively  mobile, 
wealthy  population  to-day  sets  the  pace  in  matters  of 
fashion.  The  countries  and  classes  which  have  in  this 
way  worked  out  stable  and  artistic  costumes  have  been 
so  placed  that  the  pecuniary  emulation  among  them  has 
taken  the  direction  of  a  competition  in  conspicuous 
leisure  rather  than  in  conspicuous  consumption  of  goods. 
So  that  it  will  hold  true  in  a  general  way  that  fashions 
are  least  stable  and  least  becoming  in  those  communi¬ 
ties  where  the  principle  of  a  conspicuous  waste  of  goods 
asserts  itself  most  imperatively,  as  among  ourselves.  All 
this  points  to  an  antagonism  between  expensiveness 
and  artistic  apparel.  In  point  of  practical  fact,  the 
norm  of  conspicuous  waste  is  incompatible  with  the 
requirement  that  dress  should  be  beautiful  or  becoming. 
And  this  antagonism  offers  an  explanation  of  that  rest¬ 
less  change  in  fashion  which  neither  the  canon  of  ex¬ 
pensiveness  nor  that  of  beauty  alone  can  account  for. 

The  standard  of  reputability  requires  that  dress  should 
show  wasteful  expenditure ;  but  all  wastefulness  is 
offensive  to  native  taste.  The  psychological  law  has 
already  been  pointed  out  that  all  men  —  and  women  per¬ 
haps  even  in  a  higher  degree  —  abhor  futility,  whether 
of  effort  or  of  expenditure,  —  much  as  Nature  was  once 
said  to  abhor  a  vacuum.  But  the  principle  of  con¬ 
spicuous  waste  requires  an  obviously  futile  expenditure ; 
and  the  resulting  conspicuous  expensiveness  of  dress  is 
therefore  intrinsically  ugly.  Hence  we  find  that  in  all 
innovations  in  dress,  each  added  or  altered  detail  strives 
to  avoid  instant  condemnation  by  showing  some  osten¬ 
sible  purpose,  at  the  same  time  that  the  requirement 


Dress  as  an  Expression  of  the  Pecuniary  Culture  177 

of  conspicuous  waste  prevents  the  purposefulness  of 
these  innovations  from  becoming  anything  more  than 
a  somewhat  transparent  pretense.  Even  in  its  freest 
flights,  fashion  rarely  if  ever  gets  away  from  a  simula¬ 
tion  of  some  ostensible  use.  The  ostensible  usefulness 
of  the  fashionable  details  of  dress,  however,  is  always  so 
transparent  a  make-believe,  and  their  substantial  futility 
presently  forces  itself  so  baldly  upon  our  attention  as  to 
become  unbearable,  and  then  we  take  refuge  in  a  new 
style.  But  the  new  style  must  conform  to  the  require¬ 
ment  of  reputable  wastefulness  and  futility.  Its  futility 
presently  becomes  as  odious  as  that  of  its  predecessor ; 
and  the  only  remedy  which  the  law  of  waste  allows  us 
is  to  seek  relief  in  some  new  construction,  equally  futile 
and  equally  untenable.  Hence  the  essential  ugliness 
and  the  unceasing  change  of  fashionable  attire. 

Having  so  explained  the  phenomenon  of  shifting 
fashions,  the  next  thing  is  to  make  the  explanation 
tally  with  everyday  facts.  Among  these  everyday  facts 
is  the  well-known  liking  which  all  men  have  for  the 
styles  that  are  in  vogue  at  any  given  time.  A  new 
style  comes  into  vogue  and  remains  in  favour  for  a  sea¬ 
son,  and,  at  least  so  long  as  it  is  a  novelty,  people  very 
generally  find  the  new  style  attractive.  The  prevailing 
fashion  is  felt  to  be  beautiful.  This  is  due  partly  to  the 
relief  it  affords  in  being  different  from  what  went  before 
it,  partly  to  its  being  reputable.  As  indicated  in  the 
last  chapter,  the  canon  of  reputability  to  some  extent 
shapes  our  tastes,  so  that  under  its  guidance  anything 
will  be  accepted  as  becoming  until  its  novelty  wears  off, 
or  until  the  warrant  of  reputability  is  transferred  to  a 


N 


i/8  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

new  and  novel  structure  serving  the  same  general  pur¬ 
pose.  That  the  alleged  beauty,  or  “loveliness,”  of  the 
styles  in  vogue  at  any  given  time  is  transient  and  spu¬ 
rious  only  is  attested  by  the  fact  that  none  of  the  many 
shifting  fashions  will  bear  the  test  of  time.  When  seen 
in  the  perspective  of  half  a  dozen  years  or  more,  the 
best  of  our  fashions  strike  us  as  grotesque,  if  not  un¬ 
sightly.  Our  transient  attachment  to  whatever  happens 
to  be  the  latest  rests  on  other  than  aesthetic  grounds, 
and  lasts  only  until  our  abiding  aesthetic  sense  has  had 
time  to  assert  itself  and  reject  this  latest  indigestible 
contrivance. 

The  process  of  developing  an  aesthetic  nausea  takes 
more  or  less  time ;  the  length  of  time  required  in  any 
given  case  being  inversely  as  the  degree  of  intrinsic 
odiousness  of  the  style  in  question.  This  time  relation 
between  odiousness  and  instability  in  fashions  affords 
ground  for  the  inference  that  the  more  rapidly  the 
styles  succeed  and  displace  one  another,  the  more  offen¬ 
sive  they  are  to  sound  taste.  The  presumption,  there¬ 
fore,  is  that’  the  farther  the  community,  especially  the 
wealthy  classes  of  the  community,  develop  in  wealth  and 
mobility  and  in  the  range  of  their  human  contact,  the 
more  imperatively  will  the  law  of  conspicuous  waste 
assert  itself  in  matters  of  dress,  the  more  will  the  sense 
of  beauty  tend  to  fall  into  abeyance  or  be  overborne  by 
the  canon  of  pecuniary  reputability,  the  more  rapidly 
will  fashions  shift  and  change,  and  the  more  grotesque 
and  intolerable  will  be  the  varying  styles  that  succes¬ 
sively  come  into  vogue. 

There  remains  at  least  one  point  in  this  theory  of 


Dress  as  an  Expression  of  the  Pecuniary  Culture  179 

dress  yet  to  be  discussed.  Most  of  what  has  been  said 
applies  to  men’s  attire  as  well  as  to  that  of  women  ; 
although  in  modern  times  it  applies  at  nearly  all  points 
with  greater  force  to  that  of  women.  But  at  one 
point  the  dress  of  women  differs  substantially  from 
that  of  men.  In  woman’s  dress  there  is  an  obviously 
greater  insistence  on  such  features  as  testify  to  the 
wearer’s  exemption  from  or  incapacity  for  all  vulgarly 
productive  employment.  This  characteristic  of  woman’s 
apparel  is  of  interest,  not  only  as  completing  the  theory 
of  dress,  but  also  as  confirming  what  has  already  been 
said  of  the  economic  status  of  women,  both  in  the  past 
and  in  the  present. 

As  has  been  seen  in  the  discussion  of  woman’s  status 
under  the  heads  of  Vicarious  Leisure  and  Vicarious 
Consumption,  it  has  in  the  course  of  economic  develop¬ 
ment  become  the  office  of  the  woman  to  consume  vica¬ 
riously  for  the  head  of  the  household  ;  and  her  apparel  is 
contrived  with  this  object  in  view.  It  has  come  about 
that  obviously  productive  labour  is  in  a  peculiar  degree 
derogatory  to  respectable  women,  and  therefore  special 
pains  should  be  taken  in  the  construction  of  women’s 
dress,  to  impress  upon  the  beholder  the  fact  (often 
indeed  a  fiction)  that  the  wearer  does  not  and  can  not 
habitually  engage  in  useful  work.  Propriety  requires 
respectable  women  to  abstain  more  consistently  from 
useful  effort  and  to  make  more  of  a  show  of  leisure  than 
the  men  of  the  same  social  classes.  It  grates  painfully 
on  our  nerves  to  contemplate  the  necessity  of  any  well- 
bred  woman’s  earning  a  livelihood  by  useful  work.  It 
is  not  “woman’s  sphere.”  Her  sphere  is  within  the 


i8o  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

household,  which  she  should  “beautify,”  and  of  which 
she  should  be  the  “chief  ornament.”  The  male  head  of 
the  household  is  not  currently  spoken  of  as  its  ornament. 
This  feature  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  other  fact 
that  propriety  requires  more  unremitting  attention  to 
expensive  display  in  the  dress  and  other  paraphernalia 
of  women,  goes  to  enforce  the  view  already  implied  in 
what  has  gone  before.  By  virtue  of  its  descent  from  a 
patriarchal  past,  our  social  system  makes  it  the  woman’s 
function  in  an  especial  degree  to  put  in  evidence  her 
household’s  ability  to  pay.  According  to  the  modern 
civilised  scheme  of  life,  the  good  name  of  the  household 
to  which  she  belongs  should  be  the  special  care  of  the 
woman  ;  and  the  system  of  honorific  expenditure  and 
conspicuous  leisure  by  which  this  good  name  is  chiefly 
sustained  is  therefore  the  woman’s  sphere.  In  the  ideal 
scheme,  as  it  tends  to  realise  itself  in  the  life  of  the 
higher  pecuniary  classes,  this  attention  to  conspicuous 
waste  of  substance  and  effort  should  normally  be  the 
sole  economic  function  of  the  woman. 

At  the  stage  of  economic  development  at  which  the 
women  were  still  in  the  full  sense  the  property  of  the 
men,  the  performance  of  conspicuous  leisure  and  con¬ 
sumption  came  to  be  part  of  the  services  required  of 
them.  The  women  being  not  their  own  masters, 
obvious  expenditure  and  leisure  on  their  part  would  re¬ 
dound  to  the  credit  of  their  master  rather  than  to  their 
own  credit ;  and  therefore  the  more  expensive  and  the 
more  obviously  unproductive  the  women  of  the  house¬ 
hold  are,  the  more  creditable  and  more  effective  for 
the  purpose  of  the  reputability  of  the  household  or  its 


Dress  as  an  Expression  of  the  Pecuniary  Culture  1 8 1 

head  will  their  life  be.  So  much  so  that  the  women 
have  been  required  not  only  to  afford  evidence  of  a  life  of 
leisure,  but  even  to  disable  themselves  for  useful  activity. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  the  dress  of  men  falls  short 
of  that  of  women,  and  for  a  sufficient  reason.  Con¬ 
spicuous  waste  and  conspicuous  leisure  are  reputable 
because  they  are  evidence  of  pecuniary  strength  ;  pe¬ 
cuniary  strength  is  reputable  or  honorific  because, 
in  the  last  analysis,  it  argues  success  and  superior 
force  ;  therefore  the  evidence  of  waste  and  leisure  put 
forth  by  any  individual  in  his  own  behalf  cannot  con¬ 
sistently  take  such  a  form  or  be  carried  to  such  a  pitch 
as  to  argue  incapacity  or  marked  discomfort  on  his 
part ;  as  the  exhibition  would  in  that  case  show  not 
superior  force,  but  inferiority,  and  so  defeat  its  own  pur¬ 
pose.  So,  then,  wherever  wasteful  expenditure  and  the 
show  of  abstention  from  effort  is  normally,  or  on  an 
average,  carried  to  the  extent  of  showing  obvious 
discomfort  or  voluntarily  induced  physical  disability, 
there  the  immediate  inference  is  that  the  individual 
in  question  does  not  perform  this  wasteful  expenditure 
and  undergo  this  disability  for  her  own  personal  gain 
in  pecuniary  repute,  but  in  behalf  of  some  one  else 
to  whom  she  stands  in  a  relation  of  economic  depend¬ 
ence  ;  a  relation  which  in  the  last  analysis  must,  in 
economic  theory,  reduce  itself  to  a  relation  of  servitude. 

To  apply  this  generalisation  to  women’s  dress,  and 
put  the  matter  in  concrete  terms  :  the  high  heel,  the 
skirt,  the  impracticable  bonnet,  the  corset,  and  the 
general  disregard  of  the  wearer’s  comfort  which  is  an 
obvious  feature  of  all  civilised  women’s  apparel,  are 


1 82  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

so  many  items  of  evidence  to  the  effect  that  in  the 
modern  civilised  scheme  of  life  the  woman  is  still,  in 
theory,  the  economic  dependent  of  the  man,  —  that,  per¬ 
haps  in  a  highly  idealised  sense,  she  still  is  the  man’s 
chattel.  The  homely  reason  for  all  this  conspicuous 
leisure  and  attire  on  the  part  of  women  lies  in  the 
fact  that  they  are  servants  to  whom,  in  the  differen¬ 
tiation  of  economic  functions,  has  been  delegated  the 
office  of  putting  in  evidence  their  master’s  ability  to  pay. 

There  is  a  marked  similarity  in  these  respects  be¬ 
tween  the  apparel  of  women  and  that  of  domestic 
servants,  especially  liveried  servants.  In  both  there 
is  a  very  elaborate  show  of  unnecessary  expensiveness, 
and  in  both  cases  there  is  also  a  notable  disregard  of 
the  physical  comfort  of  the  wearer.  But  the  attire 
of  the  lady  goes  farther  in  its  elaborate  insistence  on 
the  idleness,  if  not  on  the  physical  infirmity  of  the 
wearer,  than  does  that  of  the  domestic.  And  this  is 
as  it  should  be ;  for  in  theory,  according  to  the  ideal 
scheme  of  the  pecuniary  culture,  the  lady  of  the  house 
is  the  chief  menial  of  the  household. 

Besides  servants,  currently  recognised  as  such,  there 
is  at  least  one  other  class  of  persons  whose  garb  assimi¬ 
lates  them  to  the  class  of  servants  and  shows  many  of 
the  features  that  go  to  make  up  the  womanliness  of 
woman’s  dress.  This  is  the  priestly  class.  Priestly 
vestments  show,  in  accentuated  form,  all  the  features 
that  have  been  shown  to  be  evidence  of  a  servile  status 
and  a  vicarious  life.  Even  more  strikingly  than  the 
everyday  habit  of  the  priest,  the  vestments,  properly 
so  called,  are  ornate,  grotesque,  inconvenient,  and,  at 


Dress  as  an  Expression  of  the  Pecuniary  Culture  183 

least  ostensibly,  comfortless  to  the  point  of  distress. 
The  priest  is  at  the  same  time  expected  to  refrain  from 
useful  effort  and,  when  before  the  public  eye,  to  present 
an  impassively  disconsolate  countenance,  very  much 
after  the  manner  of  a  well-trained  domestic  servant. 
The  shaven  face  of  the  priest  is  a  further  item  to  the 
same  effect.  This  assimilation  of  the  priestly  class  to 
the  class  of  body  servants,  in  demeanour  and  apparel, 
is  due  to  the  similarity  of  the  two  classes  as  regards 
economic  function.  In  economic  theory,  the  priest  is 
a  body  servant,  constructively  in  attendance  upon  the 
person  of  the  divinity  whose  livery  he  wears.  His 
livery  is  of  a  very  expensive  character,  as  it  should  be 
in  order  to  set  forth  in  a  beseeming  manner  the  dignity 
of  his  exalted  master ;  but  it  is  contrived  to  show  that 
the  wearing  of  it  contributes  little  or  nothing  to  the 
physical  comfort  of  the  wearer,  for  it  is  an  item  of 
vicarious  consumption,  and  the  repute  which  accrues 
from  its  consumption  is  to  be  imputed  to  the  absent 
master,  not  to  the  servant. 

The  line  of  demarcation  between  the  dress  of  women, 
priests,  and  servants,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  men,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  not  always  consistently  observed 
in  practice,  but  it  will  scarcely  be  disputed  that  it  is 
always  present  in  a  more  or  less  definite  way  in  the 
popular  habits  of  thought.  There  are  of  course  also 
free  men,  and  not  a  few  of  them,  who,  in  their  blind 
zeal  for  faultlessly  reputable  attire,  transgress  the 
theoretical  line  between  man’s  and  woman’s  dress,  to 
the  extent  of  arraying  themselves  in  apparel  that  is 
obviously  designed  to  vex  the  mortal  frame ;  but  every 


184  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

one  recognises  without  hesitation  that  such  apparel  for 
men  is  a  departure  from  the  normal.  We  are  in  the 
habit  of  saying  that  such  dress  is  “effeminate”;  and  one 
sometimes  hears  the  remark  that  such  or  such  an  exqui¬ 
sitely  attired  gentleman  is  as  well  dressed  as  a  footman. 

Certain  apparent  discrepancies  under  this  theory  of 
dress  merit  a  more  detailed  examination,  especially  as 
they  mark  a  more  or  less  evident  trend  in  the  later 
and  maturer  development  of  dress.  The  vogue  of  the 
corset  offers  an  apparent  exception  from  the  rule  of 
which  it  has  here  been  cited  as  an  illustration.  A 
closer  examination,  however,  will  show  that  this  appar¬ 
ent  exception  is  really  a  verification  of  the  rule  that 
the  vogue  of  any  given  element  or  feature  in  dress 
rests  on  its  utility  as  an  evidence  of  pecuniary  standing. 
It  is  well  known  that  in  the  industrially  more  advanced 
communities  the  corset  is  employed  only  within  certain 
fairly  well  defined  social  strata.  The  women  of  the 
poorer  classes,  especially  of  the  rural  population,  do  not 
habitually  use  it,  except  as  a  holiday  luxury.  Among 
these  classes  the  women  have  to  work  hard,  and  it 
avails  them  little  in  the  way  of  a  pretense  of  leisure 
to  so  crucify  the  flesh  in  everyday  life.  The  holiday  use 
of  the  contrivance  is  due  to  imitation  of  a  higher-class 
canon  of  decency.  Upwards  from  this  low  level  of 
indigence  and  manual  labour,  the  corset  was  until  within 
a  generation  or  two  nearly  indispensable  to  a  socially 
blameless  standing  for  all  women,  including  the  wealthi¬ 
est  and  most  reputable.  This  rule  held  so  long  as 
there  still  was  no  large  class  of  people  wealthy  enough 
to  be  above  the  imputation  of  any  necessity  for  manual 


Dress  as  an  Expression  of  the  Pecuniary  Culture  185 

labour  and  at  the  same  time  large  enough  to  form  a  self- 
sufficient,  isolated  social  body  whose  mass  would  afford 
a  foundation  for  special  rules  of  conduct  within  the 
class,  enforced  by  the  current  opinion  of  the  class  alone. 
But  now  there  has  grown  up  a  large  enough  leisure 
class  possessed  of  such  wealth  that  any  aspersion  on 
the  score  of  enforced  manual  employment  would  be 
idle  and  harmless  calumny ;  and  the  corset  has  there¬ 
fore  in  large  measure  fallen  into  disuse  within  this  class. 

The  exceptions  under  this  rule  of  exemption  from  the 
corset  are  more  apparent  than  real.  They  are  the 
wealthy  classes  of  countries  with  a  lower  industrial 
structure  —  nearer  the  archaic,  quasi-industrial  type  — 
together  with  the  later  accessions  of  the  wealthy  classes 
in  the  more  advanced  industrial  communities.  The 
latter  have  not  yet  had  time  to  divest  themselves  of 
the  plebeian  canons  of  taste  and  of  reputability  carried 
over  from  their  former,  lower  pecuniary  grade.  Such 
survival  of  the  corset  is  not  infrequent  among  the 
higher  social  classes  of  those  American  cities,  for 
instance,  which  have  recently  and  rapidly  risen  into 
opulence.  If  the  word  be  used  as  a  technical  term, 
without  any  odious  implication,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
corset  persists  in  great  measure  through  the  period  of 
snobbery  —  the  interval  of  uncertainty  and  of  transi¬ 
tion  from  a  lower  to  the  upper  levels  of  pecuniary  cult¬ 
ure.  That  is  to  say,  in  all  countries  which  have 
inherited  the  corset  it  continues  in  use  wherever  and 
so  long  as  it  serves  its  purpose  as  an  evidence  of 
honorific  leisure  by  arguing  physical  disability  in  the 
wearer.  The  same  rule  of  course  applies  to  other 


1 86  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

mutilations  and  contrivances  for  decreasing  the  visible 
efficiency  of  the  individual. 

Something  similar  should  hold  true  with  respect  to 
divers  items  of  conspicuous  consumption,  and  indeed 
something  of  the  kind  does  seem  to  hold  to  a  slight 
degree  of  sundry  features  of  dress,  especially  if  such 
features  involve  a  marked  discomfort  or  appearance  of 
discomfort  to  the  wearer.  During  the  past  one  hundred 
years  there  is  a  tendency  perceptible,  in  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  men’s  dress  especially,  to  discontinue  methods 
of  expenditure  and  the  use  of  symbols  of  leisure  which 
must  have  been  irksome,  which  may  have  served  a  good 
purpose  in  their  time,  but  the  continuation  of  which 
among  the  upper  classes  to-day  would  be  a  work  of 
supererogation  ;  as,  for  instance,  the  use  of  powdered 
wigs  and  of  gold  lace,  and  the  practice  of  constantly 
shaving  the  face.  ^There  has  of  late  years  been  some 
slight  recrudescence  of  the  shaven  face  in  polite  society, 
but  this  is  probably  a  transient  and  unadvised  mimicry 
of  the  fashion  imposed  upon  body  servants,  and  it  may 
fairly  be  expected  to  go  the  way  of  the  powdered  wig 
of  our  grandfathers. 

These  indices,  and  others  which  resemble  them  in 
point  of  the  boldness  with  which  they  point  out  to  all 
observers  the  habitual  uselessness  of  those  persons  who 
employ  them,  have  been  replaced  by  other,  more  deli¬ 
cate  methods  of  expressing  the  same  fact ;  methods 
which  are  no  less  evident  to  the  trained  eyes  of  that 
smaller,  select  circle  whose  good  opinion  is  chiefly 
sought.  The  earlier  and  cruder  method  of  advertise¬ 
ment  held  its  ground  so  long  as  the  public  to  which  the 


Dress  as  an  Expression  of  the  Pecuniary  Culture  i8y 

exhibitor  had  to  appeal  comprised  large  portions  of  the 
community  who  were  not  trained  to  detect  delicate 
variations  in  the  evidences  of  wealth  and  leisure.  The 
method  of  advertisement  undergoes  a  refinement  when 
a  sufficiently  large  wealthy  class  has  developed,  who 
have  the  leisure  for  acquiring  skill  in  interpreting  the 
subtler  signs  of  expenditure.  “  Loud  ”  dress  becomes 
offensive  to  people  of  taste,  as  evincing  an  undue  desire 
to  reach  and  impress  the  untrained  sensibilities  of  the 
vulgar.  To  the  individual  of  high  breeding  it  is  only 
the  more  honorific  esteem  accorded  by  the  cultivated 
sense  of  the  members  of  his  own  high  class  that  is  of 
material  consequence.  Since  the  wealthy  leisure  class 
has  grown  so  large,  or  the  contact  of  the  leisure-class 
individual  with  members  of  his  own  class  has  grown  so 
wide,  as  to  constitute  a  human  environment  sufficient 
for  the  honorific  purpose,  there  arises  a  tendency  to 
exclude  the  baser  elements  of  the  population  from  the 
scheme  even  as  spectators  whose  applause  or  mortifica¬ 
tion  should  be  sought.  The  result  of  all  this  is  a  re¬ 
finement  of  methods,  a  resort  to  subtler  contrivances, 
and  a  spiritualisation  of  the  scheme  of  symbolism  in 
dress.  And  as  this  upper  leisure  class  sets  the  pace  in 
all  matters  of  decency,  the  result  for  the  rest  of  society 
also  is  a  gradual  amelioration  of  the  scheme  of  dress. 
As  the  community  advances  in  wealth  and  culture, 
the  ability  to  pay  is  put  in  evidence  by  means  which 
require  a  progressively  nicer  discrimination  in  the  be¬ 
holder.  This  nicer  discrimination  between  advertising 
media  is  in  fact  a  very  large  element  of  the  higher 
pecuniary  culture. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


Industrial  Exemption  and  Conservatism 

The  life  of  man  in  society,  just  like  the  life  of  other 
species,  is  a  struggle  for  existence,  and  therefore  it  is  a 
process  of  selective  adaptation.  The  evolution  of  social 
structure  has  been  a  process  of  natural  selection  of  in¬ 
stitutions.  The  progress  which  has  been  and  is  being 
made  in  human  institutions  and  in  human  character 
may  be  set  down,  broadly,  to  a  natural  selection  of  the 
fittest  habits  of  thought  and  to  a  process  of  enforced 
adaptation  of  individuals  to  an  environment  which  has 
progressively  changed  with  the  growth  of  the  commu¬ 
nity  and  with  the  changing  institutions  under  which 
men  have  lived.  Institutions  are  not  only  themselves  the 
result  of  a  selective  and  adaptive  process  which  shapes 
the  prevailing  or  dominant  types  of  spiritual  attitude  and 
aptitudes ;  they  are  at  the  same  time  special  methods  of 
life  and  of  human  relations,  and  are  therefore  in  their 
turn  efficient  factors  of  selection.  So  that  the  changing 
institutions  in  their  turn  make  for  a  further  selection  of 
individuals  endowed  with  the  fittest  temperament,  and  a 
further  adaptation  of  individual  temperament  and  habits 
to  the  changing  environment  through  the  formation  of 
new  institutions. 

1 88 


Industrial  Exemption  and  Conservatism  189 

The  forces  which  have  shaped  the  development  of 
human  life  and  of  social  structure  are  no  doubt  ulti¬ 
mately  reducible  to  terms  of  living  tissue  and  material 
environment;  but  proximately,  for  the  purpose  in  hand, 
these  forces  may  best  be  stated  in  terms  of  an  environ¬ 
ment,  partly  human,  partly  non-human,  and  a  human  sub¬ 
ject  with  a  more  or  less  definite  physical  and  intellectual 
constitution.  Taken  in  the  aggregate  or  average,  this 
human  subject  is  more  or  less  variable  ;  chiefly,  no 
doubt,  under  a  rule  of  selective  conservation  of  favour¬ 
able  variations.  The  selection  of  favourable  variations 
is  perhaps  in  great  measure  a  selective  conservation  of 
ethnic  types.  In  the  life  history  of  any  community 
whose  population  is  made  up  of  a  mixture  of  divers 
ethnic  elements,  one  or  another  of  several  persistent 
and  relatively  stable  types  of  body  and  of  temperament 
rises  into  dominance  at  any  given  point.  The  situation, 
including  the  institutions  in  force  at  any  given  time, 
will  favour  the  survival  and  dominance  of  one  type  of 
character  in  preference  to  another  ;  and  the  type  of  man 
so  selected  to  continue  and  to  further  elaborate  the 
institutions  handed  down  from  the  past  will  in  some 
considerable  measure  shape  these  institutions  in  his 
own  likeness.  But  apart  from  selection  as  between 
relatively  stable  types  of  character  and  habits  of  mind, 
there  is  no  doubt  simultaneously  going  on  a  process  of 
selective  adaptation  of  habits  of  thought  within  the 
general  range  of  aptitudes  which  is  characteristic  of  the 
dominant  ethnic  type  or  types.  There  may  be  a  varia¬ 
tion  in  the  fundamental  character  of  any  population  by 
selection  between  relatively  stable  types ;  but  there  is 


190  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

also  a  variation  due  to  adaptation  in  detail  within  the 
range  of  the  type,  and  to  selection  between  specific 
habitual  views  regarding  any  given  social  relation  or 
group  of  relations. 

For  the  present  purpose,  however,  the  question  as  to 
the  nature  of  the  adaptive  process  —  whether  it  is 
chiefly  a  selection  between  stable  types  of  temperament 
and  character,  or  chiefly  an  adaptation  of  men’s  habits 
of  thought  to  changing  circumstances — is  of  less  im¬ 
portance  than  the  fact  that,  by  one  method  or  another, 
institutions  change  and  develop.  Institutions  must 
change  with  changing  circumstances,  since  they  are 
of  the  nature  of  an  habitual  method  of  responding  to 
the  stimuli  which  these  changing  circumstances  afford. 
The  development  of  these  institutions  is  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  society.  The  institutions  are,  in  substance, 
prevalent  habits  of  thought  with  respect  to  particular 
relations  and  particular  functions  of  the  individual  and 
of  the  community ;  and  the  scheme  of  life,  which  is 
made  up  of  the  aggregate  of  institutions  in  force  at  a 
given  time  or  at  a  given  point  in  the  development  of 
any  society,  may,  on  the  psychological  side,  be  broadly 
characterised  as  a  prevalent  spiritual  attitude  or  a  prev¬ 
alent  theory  of  life.  As  regards  its  generic  features, 
this  spiritual  attitude  or  theory  of  life  is  in  the  last 
analysis  reducible  to  terms  of  a  prevalent  type  of 
character. 

The  situation  of  to-day  shapes  the  institutions  of  to¬ 
morrow  through  a  selective,  coercive  process,  by  acting 
upon  men’s  habitual  view  of  things,  and  so  altering  or 
fortifying  a  point  of  view  or  a  mental  attitude  handed 


Industrial  Exemption  and  Conservatism  19 1 

down  from  the  past.  The  institutions  —  that  is  to  say 
the  habits  of  thought  —  under  the  guidance  of  which 
men  live  are  in  this  way  received  from  an  earlier  time  ; 
more  or  less  remotely  earlier,  but  in  any  event  they  have 
been  elaborated  in  and  received  from  the  past.  Insti¬ 
tutions  are  products  of  the  past  process,  are  adapted 
to  past  circumstances,  and  are  therefore  never  in  full 
accord  with  the  requirements  of  the  present.  In  the 
nature  of  the  case,  this  process  of  selective  adaptation 
can  never  catch  up  with  the  progressively  changing 
situation  in  which  the  community  finds  itself  at  any 
given  time  ;  for  the  environment,  the  situation,  the  exi¬ 
gencies  of  life  which  enforce  the  adaptation  and  exercise 
the  selection,  change  from  day  to  day  ;  and  each  succes¬ 
sive  situation  of  the  community  in  its  turn  tends  to 
obsolescence  as  soon  as  it  has  been  established.  When 
a  step  in  the  development  has  been  taken,  this  step  itself 
constitutes  a  change  of  situation  which  requires  a  new 
adaptation  ;  it  becomes  the  point  of  departure  for  a  new 
step  in  the  adjustment,  and  so  on  interminably. 

It  is  to  be  noted  then,  although  it  may  be  a  tedious 
truism,  that  the  institutions  of  to-day  —  the  present  ac¬ 
cepted  scheme  of  life  —  do  not  entirely  fit  the  situation 
of  to-day.  At  the  same  time,  men’s  present  habits  of 
thought  tend  to  persist  indefinitely,  except  as  circum¬ 
stances  enforce  a  change.  These  institutions  which  have 
so  been  handed  down,  these  habits  of  thought,  points 
of  view,  mental  attitudes  and  aptitudes,  or  what  not, 
are  therefore  themselves  a  conservative  factor.  This  is 
the  factor  of  social  inertia,  psychological  inertia,  con¬ 
servatism. 


192 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


Social  structure  changes,  develops,  adapts  itself  to  an 
altered  situation,  only  through  a  change  in  the  habits  of 
thought  of  the  several  classes  of  the  community ;  or  in 
the  last  analysis,  through  a  change  in  the  habits  of 
thought  of  the  individuals  which  make  up  the  commu¬ 
nity.  The  evolution  of  society  is  substantially  a  pro¬ 
cess  of  mental  adaptation  on  the  part  of  individuals  under 
the  stress  of  circumstances  which  will  no  longer  toler¬ 
ate  habits  of  thought  formed  under  and  conforming  to 
a  different  set  of  circumstances  in  the  past.  For  the 
immediate  purpose  it  need  not  be  a  question  of  serious 
importance  whether  this  adaptive  process  is  a  process 
of  selection  and  survival  of  persistent  ethnic  types  or  a 
process  of  individual  adaptation  and  an  inheritance  of 
acquired  traits. 

Social  advance,  especially  as  seen  from  the  point  of 
view  of  economic  theory,  consists  in  a  continued  pro¬ 
gressive  approach  to  an  approximately  exact  “  adjust¬ 
ment  of  inner  relations  to  outer  relations”;  but  this 
adjustment  is  never  definitively  established,  since  the 
“outer  relations”  are  subject  to  constant  change  as  a 
consequence  of  the  progressive  change  going  on  in  the 
“inner  relations.”  But  the  degree  of  approximation 
may  be  greater  or  less,  depending  on  the  facility  with 
which  an  adjustment  is  made.  A  readjustment  of 
men’s  habits  of  thought  to  conform  with  the  exigencies 
of  an  altered  situation  is  in  any  case  made  only  tardily 
and  reluctantly,  and  only  under  the  coercion  exercised 
by  a  situation  which  has  made  the  accredited  views  un¬ 
tenable.  The  readjustment  of  institutions  and  habitual 
views  to  an  altered  environment  is  made  in  response  to 


Industrial  Exemption  and  Conservatism  193 

pressure  from  without ;  it  is  of  the  nature  of  a  response 
to  stimulus.  Freedom  and  facility  of  readjustment,  that 
is  to  say  capacity  for  growth  in  social  structure,  there¬ 
fore  depends  in  great  measure  on  the  degree  of  freedom 
with  which  the  situation  at  any  given  time  acts  on  the 
individual  members  of  the  community  —  the  degree  of 
exposure  of  the  individual  members  to  the  constraining 
forces  of  the  environment.  If  any  portion  or  class  of 
society  is  sheltered  from  the  action  of  the  environment 
in  any  essential  respect,  that  portion  of  the  community, 
or  that  class,  will  adapt  its  views  and  its  scheme  of  life 
more  tardily  to  the  altered  general  situation ;  it  will  in 
so  far  tend  to  retard  the  process  of  social  transforma¬ 
tion.  The  wealthy  leisure  class  is  in  such  a  sheltered 
position  with  respect  to  the  economic  forces  that  make 
for  change  and  readjustment.  And  it  may  be  said  that 
the  forces  which  make  for  a  readjustment  of  institu¬ 
tions,  especially  in  the  case  of  a  modern  industrial  com¬ 
munity,  are,  in  the  last  analysis,  almost  entirely  of  an 
economic  nature. 

Any  community  may  be  viewed  as  an  industrial  or 
economic  mechanism,  the  structure  of  which  is  made 
up  of  what  is  called  its  economic  institutions.  These 
institutions  are  habitual  methods  of  carrying  on  the  life-* 
process  of  the  community  in  contact  with  the  material 
environment  in  which  it  lives.  When  given  methods'"' 
of  unfolding  human  activity  in  this  given  environment 
have  been  elaborated  in  this  way,  the  life  of  the  com¬ 
munity  will  express  itself  with  some  facility  in  these 
habitual  directions.  The  community  will  make  use  of 
the  forces  of  the  environment  for  the  purposes  of  its 


o 


194 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


life  according  to  methods  learned  in  the  past  and  em¬ 
bodied  in  these  institutions.  But  as  population  in¬ 
creases,  and  as  men’s  knowledge  and  skill  in  directing 
the  forces  of  nature  widen,  the  habitual  methods  of 
relation  between  the  members  of  the  group,  and  the 
habitual  method  of  carrying  on  the  life  process  of  the 
group  as  a  whole,  no  longer  give  the  same  result  as 
before  ;  nor  are  the  resulting  conditions  of  life  distrib¬ 
uted  and  apportioned  in  the  same  manner  or  with  the 
same  effect  among  the  various  members  as  before.  If 
the  scheme  according  to  which  the  life  process  of  the 
group  was  carried  on  under  the  earlier  conditions  gave 
approximately  the  highest  attainable  result  —  under  the 
circumstances  —  in  the  way  of  efficiency  or  facility  of 
the  life  process  of  the  group;  then  the  same  scheme  of 
life  unaltered  will  not  yield  the  highest  result  attainable 
in  this  respect  under  the  altered  conditions.  Under  the 
altered  conditions  of  population,  skill,  and  knowledge, 
the  facility  of  life  as  carried  on  according  to  the  tradi¬ 
tional  scheme  may  not  be  lower  than  under  the  earlier 
conditions  ;  but  the  chances  are  always  that  it  is  less 
than  might  be  if  the  scheme  were  altered  to  suit  the 
altered  conditions. 

*  The  group  is  made  up  of  individuals,  and  the  group’s 
life  is  the  life  of  individuals  carried  on  in  at  least  osten¬ 
sible  severalty.  The  group’s  accepted  scheme  of  life 
is  the  consensus  of  views  held  by  the  body  of  these 
individuals  as  to  what  is  right,  good,  expedient,  and 
beautiful  in  the  way  of  human  life.  In  the  redistribu¬ 
tion  of  the  conditions  of  life  that  comes  of  the  altered 
method  of  dealing  with  the  environment,  the  outcome 


Industrial  Exemption  and  Conservatism  195 

is  not  an  equable  change  in  the  facility  of  life  through¬ 
out  the  group.  The  altered  conditions  may  increase 
the  facility  of  life  for  the  group  as  a  whole,  but  the  re¬ 
distribution  will  usually  result  in  a  decrease  of  facility 
or  fulness  of  life  for  some  members  of  the  group.  An 
advance  in  technical  methods,  in  population,  or  in  in¬ 
dustrial  organisation  will  require  at  least  some  of  the 
members  of  the  community  to  change  their  habits  of 
life,  if  they  are  to  enter  with  facility  and  effect  into  the 
altered  industrial  methods  ;  and  in  doing  so  they  will 
be  unable  to  live  up  to  the  received  notions  as  to  what 
are  tlje  right  and  beautiful  habits  of  life. 

Any  one  who  is  required  to  change  his  habits  of  life 
and  his  habitual  relations  to  his  fellow-men  will  feel  the 
discrepancy  between  the  method  of  life  required  of  him 
by  the  newly  arisen  exigencies,  and  the  traditional 
scheme  of  life  to  which  he  is  accustomed.  It  is  the 
individuals  placed  in  this  position  who  have  the  liveliest 
incentive  to  reconstruct  the  received  scheme  of  life  and 
are  most  readily  persuaded  to  accept  new  standards  ; 
and  it  is  through  the  need  of  the  means  of  livelihood 
that  men  are  placed  in  such  a  position.  The  pressure 
exerted  by  the  environment  upon  the  group,  and  mak¬ 
ing  for  a  readjustment  of  the  group’s  scheme  of  life, 
impinges  upon  the  members  of  the  group  in  the  form 
of  pecuniary  exigencies  ;  and  it  is  owing  to  this  fact  — 
that  external  forces  are  in  great  part  translated  into  the 
form  of  pecuniary  or  economic  exigencies  —  it  is  owing 
to  this  fact  that  we  can  say  that  the  forces  which  count 
toward  a  readjustment  of  institutions  in  any  modern 
industrial  community  are  chiefly  economic  forces;  or 


196 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


more  specifically,  these  forces  take  the  form  of  pecun¬ 
iary  pressure.  Such  a  readjustment  as  is  here  contem¬ 
plated  is  substantially  a  change  in  men’s  views  as  to 
what  is  good  and  right,  and  the  means  through  which 
a  change  is  wrought  in  men’s  apprehension  of  what  is 
good  and  right  is  in  large  part  the  pressure  of  pecun¬ 
iary  exigencies. 

Any  change  in  men’s  views  as  to  what  is  good  and 
right  in  human  life  makes  its  way  but  tardily  at  the 
best.  Especially  is  this  true  of  any  change  in  the  di¬ 
rection  of  what  is  called  progress ;  that  is  to  say,  in  the 
direction  of  divergence  from  the  archaic  position  —  from 
the  position  which  may  be  accounted  the  point  of  de¬ 
parture  at  any  step  in  the  social  evolution  of  the  com¬ 
munity.  Retrogression,  reapproach  to  a  standpoint  to 
which  the  race  has  been  long  habituated  in  the  past,  is 
easier.  This  is  especially  true  in  case  the  development 
away  from  this  past  standpoint  has  not  been  due  chiefly 
to  a  substitution  of  an  ethnic  type  whose  temperament 
lien  to  the  earlier  standpoint. 


The  cultural  stage  which  lies  immediately  back  of 
the  present  in  the  life  history  of  Western  civilisation  is 
what  has  here  been  called  the  quasi-peaceable  stage. 
At  this  quasi-peaceable  stage  the  law  of  status  is  the 
dominant  feature  in  the  scheme  of  life.  There  is  no 
need  of  pointing  out  how  prone  the  men  of  to-day  are 
to  revert  to  the  spiritual  attitude  of  mastery  and  of 
personal  subservience  which  characterises  that  stage. 
It  may  rather  be  said  to  be  held  in  an  uncertain  abey¬ 
ance  by  the  economic  exigencies  of  to-day,  than  to  have 
been  definitively  supplanted  by  a  habit  of  mind  that  is 


Industrial  Exemption  and  Conservatism  197 

in  full  accord  with  these  later-developed  exigencies. 
The  predatory  and  quasi-peaceable  stages  of  economic 
evolution  seem  to  have  been  of  long  duration  in  theiife 
history  of  all  the  chief  ethnic  elements  which  go  to 
make  up  the  populations  of  the  Western  culture.  The 
temperament  and  the  propensities  proper  to  those 
cultural  stages  have,  therefore,  attained  such  a  per¬ 
sistence  as  to  make  a  speedy  reversion  to  the  broad 
features  of  the  corresponding  psychological  constitution 
inevitable  in  the  case  of  any  class  or  community  which 
is  removed  from  the  action  of  those  forces  that  make 
for  a  maintenance  of  the  later-developed  habits  of 
thought. 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  notoriety  that  when  indi¬ 
viduals,  or  even  considerable  groups  of  men,  are  segre¬ 
gated  from  a  higher  industrial  culture  and  exposed  to  a 
lower  cultural  environment,  or  to  an  economic  situation 
of  a  more  primitive  character,  they  quickly  show  evi¬ 
dence  of  reversion  toward  the  spiritual  features  which 
characterise  the  predatory  type ;  and  it  seems  probable 
that  the  dolicho-blond  type  of  European  man  is  pos¬ 
sessed  of  a  greater  facility  for  such  reversion  to  bar¬ 
barism  than  the  other  ethnic  elements  with  which  that 
type  is  associated  in  the  Western  culture.  Examples 
of  such  a  reversion  on  a  small  scale  abound  in  the  later 
history  of  migration  and  colonisation.  Except  for  the 
fear  of  offending  that  chauvinistic  patriotism  which  is 
so  characteristic  a  feature  of  the  predatory  culture,  and 
the  presence  of  which  is  frequently  the  most  striking 
mark  of  reversion  in  modern  communities,  the  case  of 
the  American  colonies  might  be  cited  as  an  example  of 


198 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


such  a  reversion  on  an  unusually  large  scale,  though  it 
was  not  a  reversion  of  very  large  scope. 

frhe  leisure  class  is  in  great  measure  sheltered  from 
the  stress  of  those  economic  exigencies  which  prevail 
in  any  modern,  highly  organised  industrial  community. 
The  exigencies  of  the  struggle  for  the  means  of  life  are 
less  exacting  for  this  class  than  for  any  other;  and  as 
a  consequence  of  this  privileged  position  we  should 
expect  to  find  it  one  of  the  least  responsive  of  the 
classes  of  society  to  the  demands  which  the  situation 
makes  for  a  further  growth  of  institutions  and  a  read¬ 
justment  to  an  altered  industrial  situation.  The  leisure 
class  is  the  conservative  class.  The  exigencies  of  the 
general  economic  situation  of  the  community  do  not 
freely  or  directly  impinge  upon  the  members  of  this 
class.  They  are  not  required  under  penalty  of  for¬ 
feiture  to  change  their  habits  of  life  and  their  theoreti¬ 
cal  views  of  the  external  world  to  suit  the  demands  of 
an  altered  industrial  technique,  since  they  are  not  in 
the  full  sense  an  organic  part  of  the  industrial  com¬ 
munity.  Therefore  these  exigencies  do  not  readily 
produce,  in  the  members  of  this  class,  that  degree  of 
uneasiness  with  the  existing  order  which  alone  can 
lead  any  body  of  men  to  give  up  views  and  methods  of 
life  that  have  become  habitual  to  them.  The  office  of 
the  leisure  class  in  social  evolution  is  to  retard  the 
movement  and  to  conserve  what  is  obsolescent.  This 
proposition  is  by  no  means  novel ;  it  has  long  been  one 
of  the  commonplaces  of  popular  opinion. 

The  prevalent  conviction  that  the  wealthy  class  is  by 


Industrial  Exemption  and  Conservatism  199 

nature  conservative  has  been  popularly  accepted  with¬ 
out  much  aid  from  any  theoretical  view  as  to  the  place 
and  relation  of  that  class  in  the  cultural  development. 
When  an  explanation  of  this  class  conservatism  is 
offered,  it  is  commonly  the  invidious  one  that  the 
wealthy  class  opposes  innovation  because  it  has  a 
vested  interest,  of  an  unworthy  sort,  in  maintaining  the 
present  conditions.  The  explanation  here  put  forward 
imputes  no  unworthy  motive.  The  opposition  of  the 
class  to  changes  in  the  cultural  scheme  is  instinctive, 
and  does  not  rest  primarily  on  an  interested  calculation 
of  material  advantages  ;  it  is  an  instinctive  revulsion  at 
any  departure  from  the  accepted  way  of  doing  and  of 
looking  at  things — a  revulsion  common  to  all  men  and 
only  to  be  overcome  by  stress  of  circumstances.  All 
change  in  habits  of  life  and  of  thought  is  irksome. 
The  difference  in  this  respect  between  the  wealthy 
and  the  common  run  of  mankind  lies  not  so  much  in 
the  motive  which  prompts  to  conservatism  as  in  the 
degree  of  exposure  to  the  economic  forces  that  urge  a 
change.  The  members  of  the  wealthy  class  do  not 
yield  to  the  demand  for  innovation  as  readily  as  other 
men  because  they  are  not  constrained  to  do  so. 

This  conservatism  of  the  wealthy  class  is  so  obvious 
a  feature  that  it  has  even  come  to  be  recognised  as  a 
mark  of  respectability.  Since  conservatism  is  a  char¬ 
acteristic  of  the  wealthier  and  therefore  more  reputable 
portion  of  the  community,  it  has  acquired  a  certain 
honorific  or  decorative  value.  It  has  become  prescrip¬ 
tive  to  such  an  extent  that  an  adherence  to  conservative 
views  is  comprised  as  a  matter  of  course  in  our  notions 


200 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


of  respectability ;  and  it  is  imperatively  incumbent  on 
all  who  would  lead  a  blameless  life  in  point  of  social 
repute.  Conservatism,  being  an  upper-class  character¬ 
istic,  is  decorous  ;  and  conversely,  innovation,  being  a 
lower-class  phenomenon,  is  vulgar.  The  first  and  most 
unreflected  element  in  that  instinctive  revulsion  and 
reprobation  with  which  we  turn  from  all  social  inno¬ 
vators  is  this  sense  of  the  essential  vulgarity  of  the 
thing.  So  that  even  in  cases  where  one  recognises  the 
substantial  merits  of  the  case  for  which  the  innovator 
is  spokesman  —  as  may  easily  happen  if  the  evils  which 
he  seeks  to  remedy  are  sufficiently  remote  in  point  of 
time  or  space  or  personal  contact  —  still  one  cannot  but 
be  sensible  of  the  fact  that  the  innovator  is  a  person 
with  whom  it  is  at  least  distasteful  to  be  associated, 
and  from  whose  social  contact  one  must  shrink.  Inno¬ 
vation  is  bad  form. 

The  fact  that  the  usages,  actions,  and  views  of  the 
well-to-do  leisure  class  acquire  the  character  of  a  pre¬ 
scriptive  canon  of  conduct  for  the  rest  of  society,  gives 
added  weight  and  reach  to  the  conservative  influence 
of  that  class.  It  makes  it  incumbent  upon  all  reputa¬ 
ble  people  to  follow  their  lead.  So  that,  by  virtue  of  its 
igh  position  as  the  avatar  of  good  form,  the  wealthier 
class  comes  to  exert  a  retarding  influence  upon  social 
development  far  in  excess  of  that  which  the  simple 
numerical  strength  of  the  class  would  assign  it.  Its 
prescriptive  example  acts  to  greatly  stiffen  the  resist¬ 
ance  of  all  other  classes  against  any  innovation,  and  to 
fix  men’s  affections  upon  the  good  institutions  handed 
down  from  an  earlier  generation. 


Industrial  Exemption  and  Conservatism  20 1 

There  is  a  second  way  in  which  the  influence  of  the 
leisure  class  acts  in  the  same  direction,  so  far  as  con¬ 
cerns  hindrance  to  the  adoption  of  a  conventional 
scheme  of  life  more  in  accord  with  the  exigencies  of 
the  time.  This  second  method  of  upper-class  guidance 
is  not  in  strict  consistency  to  be  brought  under  the 
same  category  as  the  instinctive  conservatism  and  aver¬ 
sion  to  new  modes  of  thought  just  spoken  of  ;  but  it 
may  as  well  be  dealt  with  here,  since  it  has  at  least  this 
much  in  common  with  the  conservative  habit  of  mind 
that  it  acts  to  retard  innovation  and  the  growth  of 
social  structure.  The  code  of  proprieties,  convention¬ 
alities,  and  usages  in  vogue  at  any  given  time  and 
among  any  given  people  has  more  or  less  of  the  char¬ 
acter  of  an  organic  whole;  so  that  any  appreciable 
change  in  one  point  of  the  scheme  involves  something 
of  a  change  or  readjustment  at  other  points  also,  if  not 
a  reorganisation  all  along  the  line.  When  a  change  is 
made  which  immediately  touches  only  a  minor  point  in 
the  scheme,  the  consequent  derangement  of  the  struc¬ 
ture  of  conventionalities  may  be  inconspicuous  ;  but  even 
in  such  a  case  it  is  safe  to  say  that  some  derangement 
of  the  general  scheme,  more  or  less  far-reaching,  will 
follow.  On  the  other  hand,  when  an  attempted  reform 
involves  the  suppression  or  thorough-going  remodelling 
of  an  institution  of  first-rate  importance  in  the  conven¬ 
tional  scheme,  it  is  immediately  felt  that  a  serious  de¬ 
rangement  of  the  entire  scheme  would  result ;  it  is  felt 
that  a  readjustment  of  the  structure  to  the  new  form 
taken  on  by  one  of  its  chief  elements  would  be  a  pain¬ 
ful  and  tedious,  if  not  a  doubtful  process. 


202  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

In  order  to  realise  the  difficulty  which  such  a  radical 
change  in  any  one  feature  of  the  conventional  scheme  of 
life  would  involve,  it  is  only  necessary  to  suggest  the 
suppression  of  the  monogamic  family,  or  of  the  agnatic 
system  of  consanguinity,  or  of  private  property,  or  of 
the  theistic  faith,  in  any  country  of  the  Western  civilisa¬ 
tion  ;  or  suppose  the  suppression  of  ancestor  worship  in 
China,  or  of  the  caste  system  in  India,  or  of  slavery 
in  Africa,  or  the  establishment  of  equality  of  the  sexes 
in  Mohammedan  countries.  It  needs  no  argument  to 
show  that  the  derangement  of  the  general  structure  of 
conventionalities  in  any  of  these  cases  would  be  very 
considerable.  In  order  to  effect  such  an  innovation  a 
very  far-reaching  alteration  of  men’s  habits  of  thought 
would  be  involved  also  at  other  points  of  the  scheme 
than  the  one  immediately  in  question.  The  aversion  to 
any  such  innovation  amounts  to  a  shrinking  from  an 
essentially  alien  scheme  of  life. 

The  revulsion  felt  by  good  people  at  any  proposed 
departure  from  the  accepted  methods  of  life  is  a  familiar 
fact  of  everyday  experience.  It  is  not  unusual  to  hear 
those  persons  who  dispense  salutary  advice  and  admoni¬ 
tion  to  the  community  express  themselves  forcibly  upon 
the  far-reaching  pernicious  effects  which  the  community 
would  suffer  from  such  relatively  slight  changes  as  the 
disestablishment  of  the  Anglican  Church,  an  increased 
facility  of  divorce,  adoption  of  female  suffrage,  prohibi¬ 
tion  of  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicating  bever¬ 
ages,  abolition  or  restriction  of  inheritance,  etc.  Any 
one  of  these  innovations  would,  we  are  told,  “  shake  the 
social  structure  to  its  base,”  “reduce  society  to  chaos,” 


Industrial  Exemption  and  Conservatism  203 

“subvert  the  foundations  of  morality/’  “make  life  intol¬ 
erable,”  “confound  the  order  of  nature,”  etc.  These 
various  locutions  are,  no  doubt,  of  the  nature  of  hyper¬ 
bole  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  like  all  overstatement,  they 
are  evidence  of  a  lively  sense  of  the  gravity  of  the  con¬ 
sequences  which  they  are  intended  to  describe.  The 
effect  of  these  and  like  innovations  in  deranging  the 
accepted  scheme  of  life  is  felt  to  be  of  much  graver 
consequence  than  the  simple  alteration  of  an  isolated 
item  in  a  series  of  contrivances  for  the  convenience  of 
men  in  society.  What  is  true  in  so  obvious  a  degree 
of  innovations  of  first-rate  importance  is  true  in  a  less 
degree  of  changes  of  a  smaller  immediate  importance. 
The  aversion  to  change  is  in  large  part  an  aversion  to 
the  bother  of  making  the  readjustment  which  any  given 
change  will  necessitate ;  and  this  solidarity  of  the  sys¬ 
tem  of  institutions  of  any  given  culture  or  of  any  given 
people  strengthens  the  instinctive  resistance  offered  to 
any  change  in  men’s  habits  of  thought,  even  in  matters 
which,  taken  by  themselves,  are  of  minor  importance. 

A  consequence  of  this  increased  reluctance,  due  to 
the  solidarity  of  human  institutions,  is  that  any  innova¬ 
tion  calls  for  a  greater  expenditure  of  nervous  energy 
in  making  the  necessary  readjustment  than  would  other¬ 
wise  be  the  case.  It  is  not  only  that  a  change  in  estab¬ 
lished  habits  of  thought  is  distasteful.  The  process  of 
readjustment  of  the  accepted  theory  of  life  involves  a 
degree  of  mental  effort —  a  more  or  less  protracted  and 
laborious  effort  to  find  and  to  keep  one’s  bearings  under 
the  altered  circumstances.  This  process  requires  a  cer¬ 
tain  expenditure  of  energy,  and  so  presumes,  for  its  sue- 


204 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


cessful  accomplishment,  some  surplus  of  energy  beyond 
that  absorbed  in  the  daily  struggle  for  subsistence. 
Consequently  it  follows  that  progress  is  hindered  by 
underfeeding  and  excessive  physical  hardship,  no  less 
effectually  than  by  such  a  luxurious  life  as  will  shut 
out  discontent  by  cutting  off  the  occasion  for  it.  The 
abjectly  poor,  and  all  those  persons  whose  energies  are 
entirely  absorbed  by  the  struggle  for  daily  sustenance, 
are  conservative  because  they  cannot  afford  the  effort 
of  taking  thought  for  the  day  after  to-morrow ;  just  as 
the  highly  prosperous  are  conservative  because  they 
have  small  occasion  to  be  discontented  with  the  situa¬ 
tion  as  it  stands  to-day. 


From  this  proposition  it  follows  that  the  institution  of 
a  leisure  class  acts  to  make  the  lower  classes  conserva¬ 
tive  by  withdrawing  from  them  as  much  as  it  may  of  the 
means  of  sustenance,  and  so  reducing  their  consumption, 
and  consequently  their  available  energy,  to  such  a  point 
as  to  make  them  incapable  of  the  effort  required  for  the 
learning  and  adoption  of  new  habits  of  thought.  The 
accumulation  of  wealth  at  the  upper  end  of  the  pecuni¬ 
ary  scale  implies  privation  at  the  lower  end  of  the  scale. 
It  is  a  commonplace  that,  wherever  it  occurs,  a  consid¬ 
erable  degree  of  privation  among  the  body  of  the  people 
is  a  serious  obstacle  to  any  innovation. 

This  direct  inhibitory  effect  of  the  unequal  distribu¬ 
tion  of  wealth  is  seconded  by  an  indirect  effect  tend¬ 
ing  to  the  same  result.  As  has  already  been  seen, 
the  imperative  example  set  by  the  upper  class  in  fixing 
the  canons  of  reputability  fosters  the  practice  of  con¬ 
spicuous  consumption.  The  prevalence  of  conspicuous 


Industrial  Exemption  and  Conservatism  205 

consumption  as  one  of  the  main  elements  in  the  stan¬ 
dard  of  decency  among  all  classes  is  of  course  not  trace¬ 
able  wholly  to  the  example  of  the  wealthy  leisure  class, 
but  the  practice  and  the  insistence  on  it  are  no  doubt 
strengthened  by  the  example  of  the  leisure  class.  The 
requirements  of  decency  in  this  matter  are  very  con¬ 
siderable  and  very  imperative ;  so  that  even  among 
classes  whose  pecuniary  position  is  sufficiently  strong 
to  admit  a  consumption  of  goods  considerably  in  excess 
of  the  subsistence  minimum,  the  disposable  surplus  left 
over  after  the  more  imperative  physical  needs  are  satis¬ 
fied  is  not  infrequently  diverted  to  the  purpose  of  a  con¬ 
spicuous  decency,  rather  than  to  added  physical  comfort 
and  fulness  of  life.  Moreover,  such  surplus  energy  as 
is  available  is  also  likely  to  be  expended  in  the  acquisi¬ 
tion  of  goods  for  conspicuous  consumption  or  conspicu¬ 
ous  hoarding.  The  result  is  that  the  requirements  of 
pecuniary  reputability  tend  (1)  to  leave  but  a  scanty 
subsistence  minimum  available  for  other  than  conspicu¬ 
ous  consumption,  and  (2)  to  absorb  any  surplus  energy 
which  may  be  available  after  the  bare  physical  necessi¬ 
ties  of  life  have  been  provided  for.  The  outcome  of  the 
whole  is  a  strengthening  of  the  general  conservative 
attitude  of  the  community.  The  institution  of  a  leisure 
class  hinders  cultural  development  immediately  (1)  by 
the  inertia  proper  to  the  class  itself,  and  (2)  through  its 
prescriptive  example  of  conspicuous  waste  and  of  con¬ 
servatism,  and  (3)  indirectly  through  that  system  of 
unequal  distribution  of  wealth  and  sustenance  on  which 
the  institution  itself  rests. 

To  this  is  to  be  added  that  the  leisure  class  has  also 


20 6  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

a  material  interest  in  leaving  things  as  they  are.  Under 
the  circumstances  prevailing  at  any  given  time  this  class 
is  in  a  privileged  position,  and  any  departure  from  the 
existing  order  may  be  expected  to  work  to  the  detriment 
of  the  class  rather  than  the  reverse.  The  attitude  of 
the  class,  simply  as  influenced  by  its  class  interest, 
should  therefore  be  to  let  well-enough  alone.  This 
interested  motive  comes  in  to  supplement  the  strong 
instinctive  bias  of  the  class,  and  so  to  render  it  even 
more  consistently  conservative  than  it  otherwise  would 
be. 

All  this,  of  course,  has  nothing  to  say  in  the  way  of 
eulogy  or  deprecation  of  the  office  of  the  leisure  class 
as  an  exponent  and  vehicle  of  conservatism  or  reversion 
in  social  structure.  The  inhibition  which  it  exercises 
may  be  salutary  or  the  reverse.  Whether  it  is  the  one 
or  the  other  in  any  given  case  is  a  question  of  casuistry 
rather  than  of  general  theory.  There  may  be  truth  in  the 
view  (as  a  question  of  policy)  so  often  expressed  by  the 
spokesmen  of  the  conservative  element,  that  without 
some  such  substantial  and  consistent  resistance  to  in¬ 
novation  as  is  offered  by  the  conservative  well-to-do 
classes,  social  innovation  and  experiment  would  hurry 
the  community  into  untenable  and  intolerable  situa¬ 
tions  ;  the  only  possible  result  of  which  would  be  dis¬ 
content  and  disastrous  reaction.  All  this,  however,  is 
beside  the  present  argument. 

But  apart  from  all  deprecation,  and  aside  from  all 
question  as  to  the  indispensability  of  some  such  check 
on  headlong  innovation,  the  leisure  class,  in  the  nature 
of  things,  consistently  acts  to  retard  that  adjustment  to 


Industrial  Exemption  and  Conservatism  207 


the  environment  which  is  called  social  advance  or  de¬ 
velopment.  The  characteristic  attitude  of  the  class 
may  be  summed  up  in  the  maxim:  “Whatever  is,  is 
right  ”  ;  whereas  the  law  of  natural  selection,  as  applied 
to  human  institutions,  gives  the  axiom  :  “  Whatever  is, 
is  wrong.”  Not  that  the  institutions  of  to-day  are 
wholly  wrong  for  the  purposes  of  the  life  of  to-day, 
but  they  are,  always  and  in  the  nature  of  things,  wrong 
to  some  extent.  They  are  the  result  of  a  more  or  less 
inadequate  adjustment  of  the  methods  of  living  to  a 
situation  which  prevailed  at  some  point  in  the  past 
development ;  and  they  are  therefore  wrong  by  some¬ 
thing  more  than  the  interval  which  separates  the  pres¬ 
ent  situation  from  that  of  the  past.  “Right”  and 
“wrong”  are  of  course  here  used  without  conveying 
any  reflection  as  to  what  ought  or  ought  not  to  be. 
They  are  applied  simply  from  the  (morally  colourless) 
evolutionary  standpoint,  and  are  intended  to  designate 
compatibility  or  incompatibility  with  the  effective 
evolutionary  process.  The  institution  of  a  leisure  class, 
by  force  of  class  interest  and  instinct,  and  by  precept 
and  prescriptive  example,  makes  for  the  perpetuation 
of  the  existing  maladjustment  of  institutions,  and  even 
favours  a  reversion  to  a  somewhat  more  archaic  scheme 
of  life ;  a  scheme  which  would  be  still  farther  out  ofi 
adjustment  with  the  exigencies  of  life  under  the  ex-* 
isting  situation  even  than  the  accredited,  obsolescent 
scheme  that  has  come  down  from  the  immediate 
past. 

But  after  all  has  been  said  on  the  head  of  conserva¬ 
tion  of  the  good  old  ways,  it  remains  true  that  institu- 


208 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


tions  change  and  develop.  There  is  a  cumulative 
growth  of  customs  and  habits  of  thought ;  a  selective 
adaptation  of  conventions  and  methods  of  life.  Some¬ 
thing  is  to  be  said  of  the  office  of  the  leisure  class  in 
guiding  this  growth  as  well  as  in  retarding  it ;  but  little 

can  be  said  here  of  its  relation  to  institutional  growth 

♦ 

except  as  it  touches  the  institutions  that  are  primarily 
and  immediately  of  an  economic  character.  These 
institutions  —  the  economic  structure  —  may  be  roughly 
distinguished  into  two  classes  or  categories,  according 
as  they  serve  one  or  the  other  of  two  divergent  pur¬ 
poses  of  economic  life. 

To  adapt  the  classical  terminology,  they  are  institu¬ 
tions  of  acquisition  or  of  production  ;  or  to  revert  to 
terms  already  employed  in  a  different  connection  in 
earlier  chapters,  they  are  pecuniary  or  industrial  insti¬ 
tutions  ;  or  in  still  other  terms,  they  are  institutions 
serving  either  the  invidious  or  the  non-invidious  eco¬ 
nomic  interest.  The  former  category  have  to  do  with 
“  business,”  the  latter  with  industry,  taking  the  latter 
word  in  the  mechanical  sense.  The  latter  class  are  not 
often  recognised  as  institutions,  in  great  part  because 
they  do  not  immediately  concern  the  ruling  class,  and 
Tire,  therefore,  seldom  the  subject  of  legislation  or  of 
^deliberate  convention.  When  they  do  receive  attention 
♦they  are  commonly  approached  from  the  pecuniary  or 
business  side ;  that  being  the  side  or  phase  of  economic 
'  life  that  chiefly  occupies  men’s  deliberations  in  our 
time,  especially  the  deliberations  of  the  upper  classes. 
These  classes  have  little  else  than  a  business  interest  in 
things  economic,  and  on  them  at  the  same  time  it  is 


Industrial  Exemption  and  Conservatism  209 

chiefly  incumbent  to  deliberate  upon  the  community’s 
affairs. 

The  relation  of  the  leisure  (that  is,  propertied  non¬ 
industrial)  class  to  the  economic  process  is  a  pecuniary 
relation  —  a  relation  of  acquisition,  not  of  production; 
of  exploitation,  not  of  serviceability.  Indirectly  their 
economic  office  may,  of  course,  be  of  the  utmost  impor¬ 
tance  to  the  economic  life  process ;  and  it  is  by  no  means 
here  intended  to  depreciate  the  economic  function  of  the 
propertied  class  or  of  the  captains  of  industry.  The  pur¬ 
pose  is  simply  to  point  out  what  is  the  nature  of  the 
relation  of  these  classes  to  the  industrial  process  and 
to  economic  institutions.  Their  office  is  of  a  parasitic 
character,  and  their  interest  is  to  divert  what  substance 
they  may  to  their  own  use,  and  to  retain  whatever  is 
under  their  hand.  The  conventions  of  the  business 
world  have  grown  up  under  the  selective  surveillance 
of  this  principle  of  predation  or  parasitism.  They  are 
conventions  of  ownership ;  derivatives,  more  or  less 
remote,  of  the  ancient  predatory  culture.  But  these 
pecuniary  institutions  do  not  entirely  fit  the  situation 
of  to-day,  for  they  have  grown  up  under  a  past  situation 
differing  somewhat  from  the  present.  Even  for  effec¬ 
tiveness  in  the  pecuniary  way,  therefore,  they  are  not  as 
apt  as  might  be.  The  changed  industrial  life  requires 
changed  methods  of  acquisition ;  and  the  pecuniary 
classes  have  some  interest  in  so  adapting  the  pecuniary 
institutions  as  to  give  them  the  best  effect  for  acquisi¬ 
tion  of  private  gain  that  is  compatible  with  the  continu¬ 
ance  of  the  industrial  process  out  of  which  this  gain 
arises.  Hence  there  is  a  more  or  less  consistent  trend 


210  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

in  the  leisure-class  guidance  of  institutional  growth,  an¬ 
swering  to  the  pecuniary  ends  which  shape  leisure-class 
economic  life. 

The  effect  of  the  pecuniary  interest  and  the  pecuniary 
habit  of  mind  upon  the  growth  of  institutions  is  seen 
in  those  enactments  and  conventions  that  make  for 
security  of  property,  enforcement  of  contracts,  facility 
of  pecuniary  transactions,  vested  interests.  Of  such 
bearing  are  changes  affecting  bankruptcy  and  receiver¬ 
ships,  limited  liability,  banking  and  currency,  coalitions 
of  labourers  or  employers,  trusts,  and  pools.  The  com¬ 
munity’s  institutional  furniture  of  this  kind  is  of  imme¬ 
diate  consequence  only  to  the  propertied  classes,  and  in 
proportion  as  they  are  propertied ;  that  is  to  say,  in 
proportion  as  they  are  to  be  ranked  with  the  leisure 
class.  But  indirectly  these  conventions  of  business 
life  are  of  the  gravest  consequence  for  the  industrial 
process  and  for  the  life  of  the  community.  And  in 
guiding  the  institutional  growth  in  this  respect,  the 
pecuniary  classes,  therefore,  serve  a  purpose  of  the 
most  serious  importance  to  the  community,  not  only  in 
the  conservation  of  the  accepted  social  scheme,  but  also 
in  shaping  the  industrial  process  proper. 

The  immediate  end  of  this  pecuniary  institutional 
structure  and  of  its  amelioration  is  the  greater  facility 
of  peaceable  and  orderly  exploitation  ;  but  its  remoter 
effects  far  outrun  this  immediate  object.  Not  only  does 
the  more  facile  conduct  of  business  permit  industry  and 
extra-industrial  life  to  go  on  with  less  perturbation  ;  but 
the  resulting  elimination  of  disturbances  and  complica¬ 
tions  calling  for  an  exercise  of  astute  discrimination  in 


Industrial  Exemption  and  Conservatism  2 1 1 

everyday  affairs  acts  to  make  the  pecuniary  class  itself 
superfluous.  As  fast  as  pecuniary  transactions  are  re¬ 
duced  to  routine,  the  captain  of  industry  can  be  dis¬ 
pensed  with.  .  This  consummation,  it  is  needless  to  say, 
lies  yet  in  the  indefinite  future.  The  ameliorations 
wrought  in  favour  of  the  pecuniary  interest  in  modern 
institutions  tend,  in  another  field,  to  substitute  the 
“  soulless  ”  joint-stock  corporation  for  the  captain,  and 
so  they  make  also  for  the  dispensability  of  the  great 
leisure-class  function  of  ownership.  Indirectly,  there¬ 
fore,  the  bent  given  to  the  growth  of  economic  institu¬ 
tions  by  the  leisure-class  influence  is  of  very  considerable 
industrial  consequence. 


CHAPTER  IX 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits 

The  institution  of  a  leisure  class  has  an  effect  not 
f  only  upon  social  structure  but  also  upon  the  individual 
character  of  the  members  of  society.  So  soon  as  a 
given  proclivity  or  a  given  point  of  view  has  won  ac¬ 
ceptance  as  an  authoritative  standard  or  norm  of  life  it 
will  react  upon  the  character  of  the  members  of  the 
society  which  has  accepted  it  as  a  norm.  It  will  to 
some  extent  shape  their  habits  of  thought  and  will  ex¬ 
ercise  a  selective  surveillance  o^er  the  development 
of  men’s  aptitudes  and  inclinations.  This  effect  is 
wrought  partly  by  a  coercive,  educational  adaptation 
of  the  habits  of  all  individuals,  partly  by  a  selective 
elimination  of  the  unfit  individuals  and  lines  of  descent. 
Such  human  material  as  does  not  lend  itself  to  the 
methods  of  life  imposed  by  the  accepted  scheme  suffers 
more  or  less  elimination  as  well  as  repression.  The 
principles  of  pecuniary  emulation  and  of  industrial  ex¬ 
emption  have  in  this  way  been  erected  into  canons  of 
life,  and  have  become  coercive  factors  of  some  impor¬ 
tance  in  the  situation  to  which  men  have  to  adapt  them¬ 
selves. 

f  These  two  broad  principles  of  conspicuous  waste  and 
[industrial  exemption  affect  the  cultural  development 


212 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits  213 

both  by  guiding  men’s  habits  of  thought,  and  so  con¬ 
trolling  the  growth  of  institutions,  and  by  selectively 
conserving  certain  traits  of  human  nature  that  conduce 
to  facility  of  life  under  the  leisure-class  scheme,  and  so 
controlling  the  effective  temper  of  the  community. 
The  proximate  tendency  of  the  institution  of  a  leisure 
class  in  shaping  human  character  runs  in  the  direction 
of  spiritual  survival  and  reversion.  Its  effect  upon  the 
temper  of  a  community  is  of  the  nature  of  an  arrested 
spiritual  development.  In  the  later  culture  especially, 
the  institution  has,  on  the  whole,  a  conservative  trend. 
This  proposition  is  familiar  enough  in  substance,  but  it 
may  to  many  have  the  appearance  of  novelty  in  its 
present  application.  Therefore  a  summary  review  of 
its  logical  grounds  may  not  be  uncalled  for,  even  at  the 
risk  of  some  tedious  repetition  and  formulation  of  com¬ 
monplaces. 

Social  evolution  is  a  process  of  selective  adaptation  of 
temperament  and  habits  of  thought  under  the  stress 
of  the  circumstances  of  associated  life.  The  adaptation 
of  habits  of  thought  is  the  growth  of  institutions.  But 
along  with  the  growth  of  institutions  has  gone  a  change 
of  a  more  substantial  character.  Not  only  have  the 
habits  of  men  changed  with  the  changing  exigencies  of 
the  situation,  but  these  changing  exigencies  have  also 
brought  about  a  correlative  change  in  human  nature. 
The  human  material  of  society  itself  varies  with  the 
changing  conditions  of  life.  This  variation  of  human 
nature  is  held  by  the  later  ethnologists  to  be  a  process 
of  selection  between  several  relatively  stable  and  per¬ 
sistent  ethnic  types  or  ethnic  elements.  Men  tend  to 


214  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

revert  or  to  breed  true,  more  or  less  closely,  to  one  or 
another  of  certain  types  of  human  nature  that  have  in 
their  main  features  been  fixed  in  approximate  conform¬ 
ity  to  a  situation  in  the  past  which  differed  from  the 
situation  of  to-day.  There  are  several  of  these  rela¬ 
tively  stable  ethnic  types  of  mankind  comprised  in  the 
populations  of  the  Western  culture.  These  ethnic 
types  survive  in  the  race  inheritance  to-day,  not  as 
rigid  and  invariable  moulds,  each  of  a  single  precise  and 
specific  pattern,  but  in  the  form  of  a  greater  or  smaller 
number  of  variants.  Some  variation  of  the  ethnic 
types  has  resulted  under  the  protracted  selective  pro¬ 
cess  to  which  the  several  types  and  their  hybrids  have 
been  subjected  during  the  prehistoric  and  historic 
growth  of  culture. 

This  necessary  variation  of  the  types  themselves,  due 
to  a  selective  process  of  considerable  duration  and  of  a 
consistent  trend,  has  not  been  sufficiently  noticed  by 
the  writers  who  have  discussed  ethnic  survival.  The 
argument  is  here  concerned  with  two  main  divergent 
variants  of  human  nature  resulting  from  this,  relatively 
late,  selective  adaptation  of  the  ethnic  types  comprised 
in  the  Western  culture ;  the  point  of  interest  being  the 
probable  effect  of  the  situation  of  to-day  in  furthering 
variation  along  one  or  the  other  of  these  two  divergent 
lines. 

The  ethnological  position  may  be  briefly  summed  up  ; 
and  in  order  to  avoid  any  but  the  most  indispensable 
detail  the  schedule  of  types  and  variants  and  the  scheme 
of  reversion  and  survival  in  which  they  are  concerned 
are  here  presented  with  a  diagrammatic  meagreness  and 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits  215 

simplicity  which  would  not  be  admissible  for  any  other 
purpose.  The  man  of  our  industrial  communities  tends 
to  breed  true  to  one  or  the  other  of  three  main  ethnic 
types :  the  dolichocephalic-blond,  the  brachycephalic- 
brunette,  and  the  Mediterranean — disregarding  minor 
and  outlying  elements  of  our  culture.  But  within  each 

of  these  main  ethnic  types  the  reversion  tends  to  one 

* 

or  the  other  of  at  least  two  main  directions  of  varia¬ 
tion  ;  the  peaceable  or  ante-predatory  variant  and  the 
predatory  variant.  The  former  of  these  two  character¬ 
istic  variants  is  nearer  to  the  generic  type  in  each  case, 
being  the  reversional  representative  of  its  type  as  it 
stood  at  the  earliest  stage  of  associated  life  of  which 
there  is  available  evidence,  either  archaeological  or  psy¬ 
chological.  This  variant  is  taken  to  represent  the  ances¬ 
tors  of  existing  civilised  man  at  the  peaceable,  savage 
phase  of  life  which  preceded  the  predatory  culture,  the 
regime  of  status,  and  the  growth  of  pecuniary  emulation. 
The  second  or  predatory  variant  of  the  types  is  taken  to 
be  a  survival  of  a  more  recent  modification  of  the  main 
ethnic  types  and  their  hybrids,  — of  these  types  as  they 
were  modified,  mainly  by  a  selective  adaptation,  under 
the  discipline  of  the  predatory  culture  and  the  later 
emulative  culture  of  the  quasi-peaceable  stage,  or  the 
pecuniary  culture  proper. 

Under  the  recognised  laws  of  heredity  there  may  be 
a  survival  from  a  more  or  less  remote  past  phase.  In 
the  ordinary,  average,  or  normal  case,  if  the  type  has 
varied,  the  traits  of  the  type  are  transmitted  approxi¬ 
mately  as  they  have  stood  in  the  recent  past — which 
may  be  called  the  hereditary  present.  For  the  purpose 


21 6  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

in  hand  this  hereditary  present  is  represented  by  the 
later  predatory  and  the  quasi-peaceable  culture. 

It  is  to  the  variant  of  human  nature  which  is  charac¬ 
teristic  of  this  recent  —  hereditarily  still  existing — - 
predatory  or  quasi-predatory  culture  that  the  modern 
civilised  man  tends  to  breed  true  in  the  common  run 
of  cases.  This  proposition  requires  some  qualification 
so  far  as  concerns  the  descendants  of  the  servile  or  re¬ 
pressed  classes  of  barbarian  times,  but  the  qualification 
necessary  is  probably  not  so  great  as  might  at  first 
thought  appear.  Taking  the  population  as  a  whole,  this 
predatory,  emulative  variant  does  not  seem  to  have  at¬ 
tained  a  high  degree  of  consistency  or  stability.  That 
is  to  say,  the  human  nature  inherited  by  modern  Occi¬ 
dental  man  is  not  nearly  uniform  in  respect  of  the  range 
or  the  relative  strength  of  the  various  aptitudes  and 
propensities  which  go  to  make  it  up.  The  man  of  the 
hereditary  present  is  slightly  archaic  as  judged  for  the 
purposes  of  the  latest  exigencies  of  associated  life.  And 
the  type  to  which  the  modern  man  chiefly  tends  to  re¬ 
vert  under  the  law  of  variation  is  a  somewhat  more  archaic 
human  nature.  On  the  other  hand,  to  judge  by  the 
reversional  traits  which  show  themselves  in  individuals 
that  vary  from  the  prevailing  predatory  style  of  tem¬ 
perament,  the  ante-predatory  variant  seems  to  have  a 
greater  stability  and  greater  symmetry  in  the  distribu¬ 
tion  or  relative  force  of  its  temperamental  elements. 

This  divergence  of  inherited  human  nature,  as  between 
an  earlier  and  a  later  variant  of  the  ethnic  type  to  which 
the  individual  tends  to  breed  true,  is  traversed  and  ob¬ 
scured  by  a  similar  divergence  between  the  two  or  three 


The  Conservation  of  Arc/iaic  Traits  217 

main  ethnic  types  that  go  to  make  up  the  Occidental 
populations.  The  individuals  in  these  communities  are 
conceived  to  be,  in  virtually  every  instance,  hybrids  of 
the  prevailing  ethnic  elements  combined  in  the  most 
varied  proportions  ;  with  the  result  that  they  tend  to 
take  back  to  one  or  the  other  of  the  component  ethnic 
types.  These  ethnic  types  differ  in  temperament  in  a 
way  somewhat  similar  to  the  difference  between  the 
predatory  and  the  ante-predatory  variants  of  the  types ; 
the  dolicho-blond  type  showing  more  of  the  character¬ 
istics  of  the  predatory  temperament — or  at  least  more 
of  the  violent  disposition — than  the  bracbycephalic- 
brunette  type,  and  especially  more  than  the  Mediter¬ 
ranean.  When  the  growth  of  institutions  or  of  the 
effective  sentiment  of  a  given  community  shows  a  diver¬ 
gence  from  the  predatory  human  nature,  therefore,  it  is 
impossible  to  say  with  certainty  that  such  a  divergence 
indicates  a  reversion  to  the  ante-predatory  variant.  It 
may  be  due  to  an  increasing  dominance  of  the  one  or 
the  other  of  the  “lower”  ethnic  elements  in  the  popula¬ 
tion.  Still,  although  the  evidence  is  not  as  conclusive 
as  might  be  desired,  there  are  indications  that  the  varia¬ 
tions  in  the  effective  temperament  of  modern  communi¬ 
ties  is  not  altogether  due  to  a  selection  between  stable 
ethnic  types.  It  seems  to  be  to  some  appreciable  extent 
a  selection  between  the  predatory  and  the  peaceable 
variants  of  the  several  types. 

This  conception  of  contemporary  human  evolution  is 
not  indispensable  to  the  discussion.  The  general  con¬ 
clusions  reached  by  the  use  of  these  concepts  of  selec¬ 
tive  adaptation  would  remain  substantially  true  if  the 


218  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

earlier,  Darwinian  and  Spencerian,  terms  and  concepts 
were  substituted.  Under  the  circumstances,  some  lati¬ 
tude  may  be  admissible  in  the  use  of  terms.  The  word 
“type”  is  used  loosely,  to  denote  variations  of  tempera¬ 
ment  which  the  ethnologists  would  perhaps  recognise 
only  as  trivial  variants  of  the  type  rather  than  as  dis¬ 
tinct  ethnic  types.  Wherever  a  closer  discrimination 
seems  essential  to  the  argument,  the  effort  to  make 
such  a  closer  discrimination  will  be  evident  from  the 
context. 

The  ethnic  types  of  to-day,  then,  are  variants  of  the 
primitive  racial  types.  They  have  suffered  some  altera¬ 
tion,  and  have  attained  some  degree  of  fixity  in  their 
altered  form,  under  the  discipline  of  the  barbarian  cul¬ 
ture.  The  man  of  the  hereditary  present  is  the  bar¬ 
barian  variant,  servile  or  aristocratic,  of  the  ethnic 
elements  that  constitute  him.  But  this  barbarian  vari¬ 
ant  has  not  attained  the  highest  degree  of  homogeneity 
or  of  stability.  The  barbarian  culture  —  the  predatory 
and  quasi-peaceable  cultural  stages  —  though  of  great 
absolute  duration,  has  been  neither  protracted  enough 
nor  invariable  enough  in  character  to  give  an  extreme 
fixity  of  type.  Variations  from  the  barbarian  human 
nature  occur  with  some  frequency,  and  these  cases  of 
variation  are  becoming  more  noticeable  to-day,  because 
the  conditions  of  modern  life  no  longer  act  consistently 
to  repress  departures  from  the  barbarian  normal.  The 
predatory  temperament  does  not  lend  itself  to  all  the 
purposes  of  modern  life,  and  more  especially  not  to 
modern  industry. 

Departures  from  the  human  nature  of  the  hereditary 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits  219 

present  are  most  frequently  of  the  nature  of  reversions 
to  an  earlier  variant  of  the  type.  This  earlier  variant 
is  represented  by  the  temperament  which  characterises 
the  primitive  phase  of  peaceable  savagery.  The  circum¬ 
stances  of  life  and  the  ends  of  effort  that  prevailed 
before  the  advent  of  the  barbarian  culture,  shaped 
human  nature  and  fixed  it  as  regards  certain  funda¬ 
mental  traits.  And  it  is  to  these  ancient,  generic 
features  that  modern  men  are  prone  to  take  back  in 
case  of  variation  from  the  human  nature  of  the  heredi¬ 
tary  present.  The  conditions  under  which  men  lived 
in  the  most  primitive  stages  of  associated  life  that  can 
properly  be  called  human,  seem  to  have  been  of  a 
peaceful  kind;  and  the  character — the  temperament 
and  spiritual  attitude  —  of  men  under  these  early  con¬ 
ditions  of  environment  and  institutions  seems  to  have 
been  of  a  peaceful  and  unaggressive,  not  to  say  an 
indolent,  cast.  For  the  immediate  purpose  this  peace¬ 
able  cultural  stage  may  be  taken  to  mark  the  initial 
phase  of  social  development.  So  far  as  concerns  the 
present  argument,  the  dominant  spiritual  feature  of  this 
presumptive  initial  phase  of  culture  seems  to  have  been 
an  unreflecting,  unformulated  sense  of  group  solidarity, 
largely  expressing  itself  in  a  complacent,  but  by  no 
means  strenuous,  sympathy  with  all  facility  of  human 
life,  and  an  uneasy  revulsion  against  apprehended  inhi¬ 
bition  or  futility  of  life.  Through  its.  ubiquitous  pres¬ 
ence  in  the  habits  of  thought  of  the  ante-predatory 
savage  man,  this  pervading  but  uneager  sense  of  the 
generically  useful  seems  to  have  exercised  an  appre¬ 
ciable  constraining  force  upon  his  life  and  upon  the 


220  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

manner  of  his  habitual  contact  with  other  members  of 
the  group. 

The  traces  of  this  initial,  undifferentiated  peaceable 
phase  of  culture  seem  faint  and  doubtful  if  we  look 
merely  to  such  categorical  evidence  of  its  existence  as 
is  afforded  by  usages  and  views  in  vogue  within  the 
historical  present,  whether  in  civilised  or  in  rude  com¬ 
munities  ;  but  less  dubious  evidence  of  its  existence  is 
to  be  found  in  psychological  survivals,  in  the  way  of 
persistent  and  pervading  traits  of  human  character. 
These  traits  survive  perhaps  in  an  especial  degree 
among  those  ethnic  elements  which  were  crowded  into 
the  background  during  the  predatory  culture.  Traits 
that  were  suited  to  the  earlier  habits  of  life  then 
became  relatively  useless  in  the  individual  struggle  for 
existence.  And  those  elements  of  the  population,  or 
those  ethnic  groups,  which  were  by  temperament  less 
fitted  to  the  predatory  life  were  repressed  and  pushed 
into  the  background. 

On  the  transition  to  the  predatory  culture  the  char¬ 
acter  of  the  struggle  for  existence  changed  in  some 
degree  from  a  struggle  of  the  group  against  a  non¬ 
human  environment  to  a  struggle  against  a  human 
environment.  This  change  was  accompanied  by  an 
increasing  antagonism  and  consciousness  of  antagonism 
between  the  individual  members  of  the  group.  The 
conditions  of  success  within  the  group,  as  well  as  the 
conditions  of  the  survival  of  the  group,  changed  in 
some  measure  ;  and  the  dominant  spiritual  attitude  of 
the  group  gradually  changed,  and  brought  a  different 
range  of  aptitudes  and  propensities  into  the  position  of 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits  221 

legitimate  dominance  in  the  accepted  scheme  of  life. 
Among  these  archaic  traits  that  are  to  be  regarded  as 
survivals  from  the  peaceable  cultural  phase,  are  that 
instinct  of  race  solidarity  which  we  call  conscience, 
including  the  sense  of  truthfulness  and  equity,  and  the 
instinct  of  workmanship,  in  its  naive,  non-invidious 
expression. 

Under  the  guidance  of  the  later  biological  and  psy¬ 
chological  science,  human  nature  will  have  to  be  re¬ 
stated  in  terms  of  habit ;  and  in  the  restatement,  this, 
in  outline,  appears  to  be  the  only  assignable  place  and 
ground  of  these  traits.  These  habits  of  life  are  of  too 
pervading  a  character  to  be  ascribed  to  the  influence  of 
a  late  or  brief  discipline.  The  ease  with  which  they 
are  temporarily  overborne  by  the  special  exigencies  of 
recent  and  modern  life  argues  that  these  habits  are  the 
surviving  effects  of  a  discipline  of  extremely  ancient 
date,  from  the  teachings  of  which  men  have  frequently 
been  constrained  to  depart  in  detail  under  the  altered 
circumstances  of  a  later  time ;  and  the  almost  ubiqui¬ 
tous  fashion  in  which  they  assert  themselves  whenever 
the  pressure  of  special  exigencies  is  relieved,  argues 
that  the  process  by  which  the  traits  were  fixed  and 
incorporated  into  the  spiritual  make-up  of  the  type 
must  have  lasted  for  a  relatively  very  long  time  and 
without  serious  intermission.  The  point  is  not  seriously 
affected  by  any  question  as  to  whether  it  was  a  process 
of  habituation  in  the  old-fashioned  sense  of  the  word 
or  a  process  of  selective  adaptation  of  the  race. 

The  character  and  exigencies  of  life,  under  that 
regime  of  status  and  of  individual  and  class  antithesis 


222  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

which  covers  the  entire  interval  from  the  beginning  of 
predatory  culture  to  the  present,  argue  that  the  traits 
of  temperament  here  under  discussion  could  scarcely 
have  arisen  and  acquired  fixity  during  that  interval. 
It  is  entirely  probable  that  these  traits  have  come 
down  from  an  earlier  method  of  life,  and  have  survived 
through  the  interval  of  predatory  and  quasi-peaceable 
culture  in  a  condition  of  incipient,  or  at  least  imminent, 
desuetude,  rather  than  that  they  have  been  brought  out 
and  fixed  by  this  later  culture.  They  appear  to  be 
hereditary  characteristics  of  the  race,  and  to  have  per¬ 
sisted  in  spite  of  the  altered  requirements  of  success 
under  the  predatory  and  the  later  pecuniary  stages  of 
culture.  They  seem  to  have  persisted  by  force  of  the 
tenacity  of  transmission  that  belongs  to  an  hereditary 
trait  that  is  present  in  some  degree  in  every  member 
of  the  species,  and  which  therefore  rests  on  a  broad 
basis  of  race  continuity. 

Such  a  generic  feature  is  not  readily  eliminated,  even 
under  a  process  of  selection  so  severe  and  protracted  as 
that  to  which  the  traits  here  under  discussion  were  sub¬ 
jected  during  the  predatory  and  quasi-peaceable  stages. 
These  peaceable  traits  are  in  great  part  alien  to  the 
methods  and  the  animus  of  barbarian  life.  The  salient 
characteristic  of  the  barbarian  culture  is  an  unremitting 
emulation  and  antagonism  between  classes  and  between 
individuals.  This  emulative  discipline  favours  those  in¬ 
dividuals  and  lines  of  descent  which  possess  the  peace¬ 
able  savage  traits  in  a  relatively  slight  degree.  It 
therefore  tends  to  eliminate  these  traits,  and  it  has 
apparently  weakened  them,  in  an  appreciable  degree, 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits  223 

in  the  populations  that  have  been  subject  to  it.  Even 
where  the  extreme  penalty  for  non-conformity  to  the 
barbarian  type  of  temperament  is  not  paid,  there  results 
at  least  a  more  or  less  consistent  repression  of  the  non- 
conforming  individuals  and  lines  of  descent.  Where 
life  is  largely  a  struggle  between  individuals  within  the 
group,  the  possession  of  the  ancient  peaceable  traits  in 
a  marked  degree  would  hamper  an  individual  in  the 
struggle  for  life. 

Under  any  known  phase  of  culture,  other  or  later 
than  the  presumptive  initial  phase  here  spoken  of,  the 
gifts  of  good-nature,  equity,  and  indiscriminate  sym¬ 
pathy  do  not  appreciably  further  the  life  of  the  indi¬ 
vidual.  Their  possession  may  serve  to  protect  the 
individual  from  hard  usage  at  the  hands  of  a  majority 
that  insists  on  a  modicum  of  these  ingredients  in  their 
ideal  of  a  normal  man  ;  but  apart  from  their  indirect 
and  negative  effect  in  this  way,  the  individual  fares 
better  under  the  regime  of  competition  in  proportion 
as  he  has  less  of  these  gifts.  Freedom  from  scruple, 
from  sympathy,  honesty,  and  regard  for  life,  may,  within 
fairly  wide  limits,  be  said  to  further  the  success  of  the 
individual  in  the  pecuniary  culture.  The  highly  suc¬ 
cessful  men  of  all  times  have  commonly  been  of  this 
type  ;  except  those  whose  success  has  not  been  scored 
in  terms  of  either  wealth  or  power.  It  is  only  within 
narrow  limits,  and  then  only  in  a  Pickwickian  sense, 
that  honesty  is  the  best  policy. 

As  seen  from  the  point  of  view  of  life  under  modern 
civilised  conditions  in  an  enlightened  community  of  the 
Western  culture,  the  primitive,  ante-predatory  savage, 


224  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

whose  character  it  has  been  attempted  to  trace  in 
outline  above,  was  not  a  great  success.  Even  for  the 
purposes  of  that  hypothetical  culture  to  which  his  type 
of  human  nature  owes  what  stability  it  has  —  even  for 
the  ends  of  the  peaceable  savage  group — this  primitive 
man  has  quite  as  many  and  as  conspicuous  economic 
failings  as  he  has  economic  virtues,  —  as  should  be  plain 
to  any  one  whose  sense  of  the  case  is  not  biassed  by 
leniency  born  of  a  fellow-feeling.  At  his  best  he  is  “a 
clever,  good-for-nothing  fellow.”  The  shortcomings  of 
this  presumptively  primitive  type  of  character  are  weak¬ 
ness,  inefficiency,  lack  of  initiative  and  ingenuity,  and 
a  yielding  and  indolent  amiability,  together  with  a  lively 
but  inconsequential  animistic  sense.  Along  with  these 
traits  go  certain  others  which  have  some  value  for  the 
collective  life  process,  in  the  sense  that  they  further  the 
facility  of  life  in  the  group.  These  traits  are  truthful¬ 
ness,  peaceableness,  good-will,  and  a  non-emulative,  non- 
invidious  interest  in  men  and  things. 

With  the  advent  of  the  predatory  stage  of  life  there 
comes  a  change  in  the  requirements  of  the  successful 
human  character.  Men’s  habits  of  life  are  required  to 
adapt  themselves  to  new  exigencies  under  a  new  scheme 
of  human  relations.  The  same  unfolding  of  energy, 
which  had  previously  found  expression  in  the  traits  of 
savage  life  recited  above,  is  now  required  to  find  ex¬ 
pression  along  a  new  line  of  action,  in  a  new  group  of 
habitual  responses  to  altered  stimuli.  The  methods 
which,  as  counted  in  terms  of  facility  of  life,  answered 
measurably  under  the  earlier  conditions,  are  no  longer 
adequate  under  the  new  conditions.  The  earlier  situa- 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits  225 

tion  was  characterised  by  a  relative  absence  of  antago¬ 
nism  or  differentiation  of  interests,  the  later  situation 
by  an  emulation  constantly  increasing  in  intensity  and 
narrowing  in  scope.  The  traits  which  characterise  the 
predatory  and  subsequent  stages  of  culture,  and  which 
indicate  the  types  of  man  best  fitted  to  survive  under 
the  regime  of  status,  are  (in  their  primary  expression) 
ferocity,  self-seeking,  clannishness,  and  disingenuous¬ 
ness —  a  free  resort  to  force  and  fraud. 

Under  the  severe  and  protracted  discipline  of  the 
regime  of  competition,  the  selection  of  ethnic  types  has 
acted  to  give  a  somewhat  pronounced  dominance  to 
these  traits  of  character,  by  favouring  the  survival  of 
those  ethnic  elements  which  are  most  richly  endowed 
in  these  respects.  At  the  same  time  the  earlier- 
acquired,  more  generic  habits  of  the  race  have  never 
ceased  to  have  some  usefulness  for  the  purposes  of  the 
life  of  the  collectivity  and  have  never  fallen  into  defini¬ 
tive  abeyance. 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  point  out  that  the  dolicho- 
blond  type  of  European  man  seems  to  owe  much  of  its 
dominating  influence  and  its  masterful  position  in  the 
recent  culture  to  its  possessing  the  characteristics  of 
predatory  man  in  an  exceptional  degree.  These  spirit¬ 
ual  traits,  together  with  a  large  endowment  of  physical 
energy,  —  itself  probably  a  result  of  selection  between 
groups  and  between  lines  of  descent,  —  chiefly  go  to 
place  any  ethnic  element  in  the  position  of  a  leisure 
or  master  class,  especially  during  the  earlier  phases  of 
the  development  of  the  institution  of  a  leisure  class. 
This  need  not  mean  that  precisely  the  same  comple- 
Q 


226  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

ment  of  aptitudes  in  any  individual  would  insure  him 
an  eminent  personal  success.  Under  the  competitive 
regime,  the  conditions  of  success  for  the  individual  are 
not  necessarily  the  same  as  those  for  a  class.  The 
success  of  a  class  or  party  presumes  a  strong  element 
of  clannishness,  or  loyalty  to  a  chief,  or  adherence  to 
a  tenet ;  whereas  the  competitive  individual  can  best 
achieve  his  ends  if  he  combines  the  barbarian’s  energy, 
initiative,  self-seeking  and  disingenuousness  with  the 
savage’s  lack  of  loyalty  or  clannishness.  It  may  be 
remarked  by  the  way,  that  the  men  who  have  scored 
a  brilliant  (Napoleonic)  success  on  the  basis  of  an 
impartial  self-seeking  and  absence  of  scruple,  have  not 
uncommonly  shown  more  of  the  physical  characteris¬ 
tics  of  the  brachycephalic-brunette  than  of  the  dolicho- 
blond.  The  greater  proportion  of  moderately  success¬ 
ful  individuals,  in  a  self-seeking  way,  however,  seem, 
in  physique,  to  belong  to  the  last-named  ethnic  ele¬ 
ment. 

The  temperament  induced  by  the  predatory  habit  of 
life  makes  for  the  survival  and  fulness  of  life  of  the 
individual  under  a  regime  of  emulation  ;  at  the  same 
time  it  makes  for  the  survival  and  success  of  the  group 
if  the  group’s  life  as  a  collectivity  is  also  predominantly 
a  life  of  hostile  competition  with  other  groups.  But  the 
evolution  of  economic  life  in  the  industrially  more 
mature  communities  has  now  begun  to  take  such  a 
turn  that  the  interest  of  the  community  no  longer  coin¬ 
cides  with  the  emulative  interests  of  the  individual. 
In  their  corporate  capacity,  these  advanced  industrial 
communities  are  ceasing  to  be  competitors  for  the 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits  227 

means  of  life  or  for  the  right  to  live  —  except  in  so  far 
as  the  predatory  propensities  of  their  ruling  classes 
keep  up  the  tradition  of  war  and  rapine.  These  com¬ 
munities  are  no  longer  hostile  to  one  another  by  force 
of  circumstances,  other  than  the  circumstances  of  tradi¬ 
tion  and  temperament.  Their  material  interests  —  apart, 
possibly,  from  the  interests  of  the  collective  good  fame 
—  are  not  only  no  longer  incompatible,  but  the  suc¬ 
cess  of  any  one  of  the  communities  unquestionably 
furthers  the  fulness  of  life  of  any  other  community  in 
the  group,  for  the  present  and  for  an  incalculable  time 
to  come.  No  one  of  them  any  longer  has  any  material 
interest  in  getting  the  better  of  any  other.  The  same 
is  not  true  in  the  same  degree  as  regards  individuals 
and  their  relations  to  one  another. 

The  collective  interests  of  any  modern  community 
centre  in  industrial  efficiency.  The  individual  is  ser¬ 
viceable  for  the  ends  of  the  community  somewhat  in 
proportion  to  his  efficiency  in  the  productive  employ¬ 
ments,  vulgarly  so  called.  This  collective  interest  is 
best  served  by  honesty,  diligence,  peacefulness,  good¬ 
will,  an  absence  of  self-seeking,  and  an  habitual  recog¬ 
nition  and  apprehension  of  causal  sequence,  without 
admixture  of  animistic  belief  and  without  a  sense  of 
dependence  on  any  preternatural  intervention  in  the 
course  of  events.  Not  much  is  to  be  said  for  the 
beauty,  moral  excellence,  or  general  worthiness  and 
reputability  of  such  a  prosy  human  nature  as  these 
traits  imply ;  and  there  is  little  ground  of  enthusiasm 
for  the  manner  of  collective  life  that  would  result  from 
the  prevalence  of  these  traits  in  unmitigated  dominance. 


228 


The  TJieory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


But  that  is  beside  the  point.  The  successful  working 
of  a  modern  industrial  community  is  best  secured 
where  these  traits  concur,  and  it  is  attained  in  the 
degree  in  which  the  human  material  is  characterised  by 
their  possession.  Their  presence  in  some  measure  is 
required  in  order  to  a  tolerable  adjustment  to  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  of  the  modern  industrial  situation.  The 
complex,  comprehensive,  essentially  peaceable,  and 
highly  organised  mechanism  of  the  modern  indus¬ 
trial  community  works  to  the  best  advantage  when 
these  traits,  or  most  of  them,  are  present  in  the  high¬ 
est  practicable  degree.  These  traits  are  present  in  a 
markedly  less  degree  in  the  man  of  the  predatory  type 
than  is  useful  for  the  purposes  of  the  modern  collective 
life. 

/  On  the  other  hand,  the  immediate  interest  of  the 
individual  under  the  competitive  regime  is  best  served 
by  shrewd  trading  and  unscrupulous  management.  The 
characteristics  named  above  as  serving  the  interests 
of  the  community  are  disserviceable  to  the  individual, 
rather  than  otherwise.  The  presence  of  these  aptitudes 
In  his  make-up  diverts  his  energies  to  other  ends  than 
those  of  pecuniary  gain ;  and  also  in  his  pursuit  of  gain 
they  lead  him  to  seek  gain  by  the  indirect  and  ineffect¬ 
ual  channels  of  industry,  rather  than  by  a  free  and 
unfaltering  career  of  sharp  practice.  The  industrial 
aptitudes  are  pretty  consistently  a  hindrance  to  the 
individual.  Under  the  regime  of  emulation  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  a  modern  industrial  community  are  rivals,  each 
of  whom  will  best  attain  his  individual  and  immediate 
advantage  if,  through  an  exceptional  exemption  from 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits  229 

scruple,  he  is  able  serenely  to  overreach  and  injure  his 
fellows  when  the  chance  offers. 

It  has  already  been  noticed  that  modern  economic 
institutions  fall  into  two  roughly  distinct  categories,  • — 
the  pecuniary  and  the  industrial.  The  like  is  true  of 
employments.  Under  the  former  head  are  employments 
that  have  to  do  with  ownership  or  acquisition;  under 
the  latter  head,  those  that  have  to  do  with  workmanship 

. .  ■**"  ""'I'1  Hw  ~~>l»u 

or  production.  As  was  found  in  speaking  of  the  growth 
of  institutions,  so  with  regard  to  employments.  The 
economic  interests  of  the  leisure  class  lie  in  the  pecuni¬ 
ary  employments;  those  of  the  working  classes  lie  in 
both  classes  of  employments,  but  chiefly  in  the  indus¬ 
trial.  Entrance  to  the  leisure  class  lies  through  the 
pecuniary  employments. 

These  two  classes  of  employments  differ  materially 
in  respect  of  the  aptitudes  required  for  each ;  and  the 
training  which  they  give  similarly  follows  two  divergent 
lines.  The  discipline  of  the  pecuniary  employments 
acts  to  conserve  and  to  cultivate  certain  of  the  predatory 
aptitudes  and  the  predatory  animus.  It  does  this  both 
by  educating  those  individuals  and  classes  who  are 
occupied  with  these  employments  and  by  selectively 
repressing  and  eliminating  those  individuals  and  lines 
of  descent  that  are  unfit  in  this  respect.  So  far  as 
men’s  habits  of  thought  are  shaped  by  the  competitive 
process  of  acquisition  and  tenure ;  so  far  as  their  eco¬ 
nomic  functions  are  comprised  within  the  range  of 
ownership  of  wealth  as  conceived  in  terms  of  exchange 
value,  and  its  management  and  financiering  through 
a  permutation  of  values;  so  far  their  experience  in 


230  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

economic  life  favours  the  survival  and  accentuation 
of  the  predatory  temperament  and  habits  of  thought. 
Under  the  modern,  peaceable  system,  it  is  of  course 
the  peaceable  range  of  predatory  habits  and  aptitudes 
that  is  chiefly  fostered  by  a  life  of  acquisition.  That  is 
to  say,  the  pecuniary  employments  give  proficiency  in 
the  general  line  of  practices  comprised  under  fraud, 
rather  than  in  those  that  belong  under  the  more  archaic 
method  of  forcible  seizure. 

These  pecuniary  employments,  tending  to  conserve 
the  predatory  temperament,  are  the  employments  which 
have  to  do  with  ownership  —  the  immediate  function  of 
the  leisure  class  proper  —  and  the  subsidiary  functions 
concerned  with  acquisition  and  accumulation.  These 
cover  that  class  of  persons  and  that  range  of  duties  in 
the  economic  process  which  have  to  do  with  the  owner¬ 
ship  of  enterprises  engaged  in  competitive  industry; 
especially  those  fundamental  lines  of  economic  man¬ 
agement  which  are  classed  as  financiering  operations. 
To  these  may  be  added  the  greater  part  of  mercantile 
occupations.  In  their  best  and  clearest  development 
these  duties  make  up  the  economic  office  of  the  “cap¬ 
tain  of  industry.”  The  captain  of  industry  is  an  astute 
man  rather  than  an  ingenious  one,  and  his  captaincy  is 
a  pecuniary  rather  than  an  industrial  captaincy.  Such 
administration  of  industry  as  he  exercises  is  commonly 
of  a  permissive  kind.  The  mechanically  effective  de¬ 
tails  of  production  and  of  industrial  organisation  are 
delegated  to  subordinates  of  a  less  “practical”  turn  of 
mind,  —  men  who  are  possessed  of  a  gift  for  workmanship 
rather  than  administrative  ability.  So  far  as  regards 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits 


231 


\ 


their  tendency  in  shaping  human  nature  by  education 
and  selection,  the  common  run  of  non-economic  employ¬ 
ments  are  to  be  classed  with  the  pecuniary  employ¬ 
ments.  Such  are  politics  and  ecclesiastical  and  military 
employments. 

The  pecuniary  employments  have  also  the  sanction 
of  reputability  in  a  much  higher  degree  than  the  indus¬ 
trial  employments.  In  this  way  the  leisure-class  stand¬ 
ards  of  good  repute  come  in  to  sustain  the  prestige  of 
those  aptitudes  that  serve  the  invidious  purpose  ;  and 
the  leisure-class  scheme  of  decorous  living,  therefore, 
also  furthers  the  survival  and  culture  of  the  predatory 
traits.  Employments  fall  into  a  hierarchical  gradation 
of  reputability.  Those^  whida-Jaav-e-Jaa,  do  immediately 
with  ownership  on  a  large  scale  are  the  most  reputable 
of  economic  employments  proper.  Next  to  these  in 
good  repute  come  those  employments  that  are  immedi¬ 
ately  subservient  to  ownership  and  financiering,  —  such 
as  banking  and  the  law.  Banking  employments  also 
carry  a  suggestion  of  large  ownership,  and  this  fact  is 
doubtless  accountable  for  a  share  of  the  prestige  that 
attaches  to  the  business.  The  profession  of  the  law 
does  not  imply  large  ownership ;  but  since  no  taint  of 
usefulness,  for  other  than  the  competitive  purpose, 
attaches  to  the  lawyer’s  trade,  it  grades  high  in  the 
conventional  scheme.  The  lawyer  is  exclusively  oc¬ 
cupied  with  the  details  of  predatory  fraud,  either  in 
achieving  or  in  checkmating  chicane,  and  success  in  the 
profession  is  therefore  accepted  as  marking  a  large  en¬ 
dowment  of  that  barbarian  astuteness  which  has  always 
commanded  men’s  respect  and  fear.  Mercantile  pur- 


232  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

suits  are  only  half-way  reputable,  unless  they  involve  a 
large  element  of  ownership  and  a  small  element  of  use¬ 
fulness.  They  grade  high  or  low  somewhat  in  propor¬ 
tion  as  they  serve  the  higher  or  the  lower  needs  ;  so 
that  the  husinessof  retailing,  the  vulgar  necessaries  of 
life  descends  to  the  level  of  the  handicrafts  and  factory 
labour.  Manual  labour,  or  even  the  work  of  directing 
mechanical  processes,  is  of  course  on  a  precarious  foot¬ 
ing  as  regards  respectability. 

A  qualification  is  necessary  as  regards  the  discipline 
given  by  the  pecuniary  employments.  As  the  scale  of 
industrial  enterprise  grows  larger,  pecuniary  manage¬ 
ment  comes  to  bear  less  of  the  character  of  chicane  and 
shrewd  competition  in  detail.  That  is  to  say,  for  an 
ever-increasing  proportion  of  the  persons  who  come  in 
contact  with  this  phase  of  economic  life,  business 
reduces  itself  to  a  routine  in  which  there  is  less  imme¬ 
diate  suggestion  of  overreaching  or  exploiting  a  com¬ 
petitor.  The  consequent  exemption  from  predatory 
habits  extends  chiefly  to  subordinates  employed  in 
business.  The  duties  of  ownership  and  administration 
are  virtually  untouched  by  this  qualification. 

The  case  is  different  as  regards  those  individuals  or 
classes  who  are  immediately  occupied  with  the  technique 
and  manual  operations  of  production.  Their  daily  life 
is  not  in  the  same  degree  a  course  of  habituation  to  the 
emulative  and  invidious  motives  and  manoeuvres  of  the 
pecuniary  side  of  industry.  They  are  consistently  held 
to  the  apprehension  and  coordination  of  mechanical 
facts  and  sequences,  and  to  their  appreciation  and 
utilisation  for  the  purposes  of  human  life.  So  far  as 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits  233 

concerns  this  portion  of  the  population,  the  educative 
and  selective  action  of  the  industrial  process  with  which 
they  are  immediately  in  contact  acts  to  adapt  their 
habits  of  thought  to  the  non-invidious  purposes  of  the 
collective  life.  For  them,  therefore,  it  hastens  the 
obsolescence  of  the  distinctively  predatory  aptitudes 
and  propensities  carried  over  by  heredity  and  tradition 
from  the  barbarian  past  of  the  race. 

The  educative  action  of  the  economic  life  of  the  com¬ 
munity,  therefore,  is  not  of  a  uniform  kind  throughout 
all  its  manifestations.  That  range  of  economic  activi¬ 
ties  which  is  concerned  immediately  with  pecuniary 
competition  has  a  tendency  to  conserve  certain  preda¬ 
tory  traits ;  while  those  industrial  occupations  which 
have  to  do  immediately  with  the  production  of  goods 
have  in  the  main  the  contrary  tendency.  But  with 
regard  to  the  latter  class  of  employments  it  is  to  be 
noticed  in  qualification  that  the  persons  engaged  in 
them  are  nearly  all  to  some  extent  also  concerned  with 
matters  of  pecuniary  competition  (as,  for  instance,  in  the 
competitive  fixing  of  wages  and  salaries,  in  the  purchase 
of  goods  for  consumption,  etc.).  Therefore  the  distinc¬ 
tion  here  made  between  classes  of  employments  is  by 
no  means  a  hard  and  fast  distinction  between  classes 
of  persons. 

The  employments  of  the  leisure  classes  in  modern 
industry  are  such  as  to  keep  alive  certain  of  the  preda¬ 
tory  habits  and  aptitudes.  So  far  as  the  members  of 
those  classes  take  part  in  the  industrial  process,  their 
training  tends  to  conserve  in  them  the  barbarian  tem¬ 
perament.  But  there  is  something  to  be  said  on  the 


234  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

other  side.  Individuals  so  placed  as  to  be  exempt  from 
strain  may  survive  and  transmit  their  characteristics 
even  if  they  differ  widely  from  the  average  of  the 
species  both  in  physique  and  in  spiritual  make-up.  The 
chances  for  a  survival  and  transmission  of  atavistic  traits 
are  greatest  in  those  classes  that  are  most  sheltered 
from  the  stress  of  circumstances.  The  leisure  class  is 
in  some  degree  sheltered  from  the  stress  of  the  indus¬ 
trial  situation,  and  should,  therefore,  afford  an  exception¬ 
ally  great  proportion  of  reversions  to  the  peaceable  or 
savage  temperament.  It  should  be  possible  for  such 
aberrant  or  atavistic  individuals  to  unfold  their  life  activ¬ 
ity  on  ante-predatory  lines  without  suffering  as  prompt  a 
repression  or  elimination  as  in  the  lower  walks  of  life. 

Something  of  the  sort  seems  to  be  true  in  fact.  There 
is,  for  instance,  an  appreciable  proportion  of  the  upper 
classes  whose  inclinations  lead  them  into  philanthropic 
work,  and  there  is  a  considerable  body  of  sentiment  in 
the  class  going  to  support  efforts  of  reform  and  amelio¬ 
ration.  And  much  of  this  philanthropic  and  reforma¬ 
tory  effort,  moreover,  bears  the  marks  of  that  amiable 
“  cleverness  ”  and  incoherence  that  is  characteristic  of 
the  primitive  savage.  But  it  may  still  be  doubtful 
whether  these  facts  are  evidence  of  a  larger  proportion 
of  reversions  in  the  higher  than  in  the  lower  strata. 
Even  if  the  same  inclinations  were  present  in  the  im¬ 
pecunious  classes,  it  would  not  as  easily  find  expression 
there  ;  since  those  classes  lack  the  means  and  the  time 
and  energy  to  give  effect  to  their  inclinations  in  this 
respect.  The  priina  facie  evidence  of  the  facts  can 
scarcely  go  unquestioned. 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits  235 

In  further  qualification  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the 
leisure  class  of  to-day  is  recruited  from  those  who  have 
been  successful  in  a  pecuniary  way,  and  who,  therefore, 
are  presumably  endowed  with  more  than  an  even  com¬ 
plement  of  the  predatory  traits.  Entrance  into  the 
leisure  class  lies  through  the  pecuniary  employments, 
and  these  employments,  by  selection  and  adaptation, 
act  to  admit  to  the  upper  levels  only  those  lines  of 
descent  that  are  pecuniarily  fit  to  survive  under  the 
predatory  test.  And  so  soon  as  a  case  of  reversion  to 
non-predatory  human  nature  shows  itself  on  these 
upper  levels,  it  is  commonly  weeded  out  and  thrown 
back  to  the  lower  pecuniary  levels.  In  order  to  hold 
its  place  in  the  class,  a  stock  must  have  the  pecuniary 
temperament ;  otherwise  its  fortune  would  be  dissipated 
and  it  would  presently  lose  caste.  Instances  of  this 
kind  are  sufficiently  frequent. 

The  constituency  of  the  leisure  class  is  kept  up  by  a 
continual  selective  process,  whereby  the  individuals  and 
lines  of  descent  that  are  eminently  fitted  for  an  aggres¬ 
sive  pecuniary  competition  are  withdrawn  from  the  lower 
classes.  In  order  to  reach  the  upper  levels  the  aspirant 
must  have,  not  only  a  fair  average  complement  of  the 
pecuniary  aptitudes,  but  he  must  have  these  gifts  in 
such  an  eminent  degree  as  to  overcome  very  material 
difficulties  that  stand  in  the  way  of  his  ascent.  Barring 
accidents,  the  nouveanx  arrives  are  a  picked  body. 

This  process  of  selective  admission  has,  of  course, 
always  been  going  on  ;  ever  since  the  fashion  of  pecuni¬ 
ary  emulation  set  in,  —  which  is  much  the  same  as  say¬ 
ing,  ever  since  the  institution  of  a  leisure  class  was  first 


236  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

installed.  But  the  precise  ground  of  selection  has  not 
always  been  the  same,  and  the  selective  process  has 
therefore  not  always  given  the  same  results.  In  the 
early  barbarian  or  predatory  stage  proper,  the  test  of 
fitness  was  prowess,  in  the  naive  sense  of  the  word. 
To  gain  entrance  to  the  class,  the  candidate  must  be 
gifted  with  clannishness,  massiveness,  ferocity,  unscru¬ 
pulousness,  and  tenacity  of  purpose.  These  were  the 
qualities  that  counted  toward  the  accumulation  and  con¬ 
tinued  tenure  of  wealth.  The  economic  basis  of  the 
leisure  class,  then  as  later,  was  the  possession  of  wealth ; 
but  the  methods  of  accumulating  wealth,  and  the  gifts 
required  for  holding  it,  have  changed  in  some  degree 
since  the  early  days  of  the  predatory  culture.  In  con¬ 
sequence  of  the  selective  process  the  dominant  traits  of 
the  early  barbarian  leisure  class  were  bold  aggression, 
an  alert  sense  of  status,  and  a  free  resort  to  fraud.  The 
members  of  the  class  held  their  place  by  tenure  of  prow¬ 
ess.  In  the  later  barbarian  culture  society  attained 
settled  methods  of  acquisition  and  possession  under  the 
quasi-peaceable  regime  of  status.  Simple  aggression 
and  unrestrained  violence  in  great  measure  gave  place 
to  shrewd  practise  and  chicanery,  as  the  best  approved 
method  of  accumulating  wealth.  A  different  range  of 
aptitudes  and  propensities  would  then  be  conserved  in 
the  leisure  class.  Masterful  aggression,  and  the  correla¬ 
tive  massiveness,  together  with  a  ruthlessly  consistent 
sense  of  status,  would  still  count  among  the  most  splen¬ 
did  traits  of  the  class.  These  have  remained  in  our 
traditions  as  the  typical  “aristocratic  virtues.”  But 
with  these  were  associated  an  increasing  complement 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits  237 

of  the  less  obtrusive  pecuniary  virtues  :  such  as  provi¬ 
dence,  prudence,  and  chicane.  As  time  has  gone  on, 
and  the  modern  peaceable  stage  of  pecuniary  culture 
has  been  approached,  the  last-named  range  of  aptitudes 
and  habits  has  gained  in  relative  effectiveness  for  pe¬ 
cuniary  ends,  and  they  have  counted  for  relatively  more 
in  the  selective  process  under  which  admission  is  gained 
and  place  is  held  in  the  leisure  class. 

The  ground  of  selection  has  changed,  until  the  apti¬ 
tudes  which  now  qualify  for  admission  to  the  class  are 
the  pecuniary  aptitudes  only.  What  remains  of  the 
predatory  barbarian  traits  is  the  tenacity  of  purpose  or 
consistency  of  aim  which  distinguished  the  successful 
predatory  barbarian  from  the  peaceable  savage  whom  he 
supplanted.  But  this  trait  can  not  be  said  characteris¬ 
tically  to  distinguish  the  pecuniarily  successful  upper- 
class  man  from  the  rank  and  file  of  the  industrial 
classes.  The  training  and  the  selection  to  which  the 
latter  are  exposed  in  modern  industrial  life  give  a  simi¬ 
larly  decisive  weight  to  this  trait.  Tenacity  of  purpose 
may  rather  be  said  to  distinguish  both  these  classes 
from  two  others :  the  shiftless  ne’er-do-weel  and  the 
lower-class  delinquent.  In  point  of  natural  endowment 
the  pecuniary  man  compares  with  the  delinquent  in 
much  the  same  way  as  the  industrial  man  compares  with 
the  good-natured  shiftless  dependent.  The  ideal  pecuni¬ 
ary  man  is  like  the  ideal  delinquent  in  his  unscrupu¬ 
lous  conversion  of  goods  and  persons  to  his  own  ends, 
and  in  a  callous  disregard  of  the  feelings  and  wishes  of 
others  and  of  the  remoter  effects  of  his  actions ;  but  he 
is  unlike  him  in  possessing  a  keener  sense  of  status,  and 


238  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

in  working  more  consistently  and  far-sightedly  to  a  re¬ 
moter  end.  The  kinship  of  the  two  types  of  tempera¬ 
ment  is  further  shown  in  a  proclivity  to  “sport”  and 
gambling,  and  a  relish  of  aimless  emulation.  The  ideal 
pecuniary  man  also  shows  a  curious  kinship  with  the 
delinquent  in  one  of  the  concomitant  variations  of  the 
predatory  human  nature.  The  delinquent  is  very  com¬ 
monly  of  a  superstitious  habit  of  mind ;  he  is  a  great 
believer  in  luck,  spells,  divination  and  destiny,  and  in 
omens  and  shamanistic  ceremony.  Where  circum¬ 
stances  are  favourable,  this  proclivity  is  apt  to  express 
itself  in  a  certain  servile  devotional  fervour  and  a  punc¬ 
tilious  attention  to  devout  observances ;  it  may  perhaps 
be  better  characterised  as  devoutness  than  as  religion. 
At  this  point  the  temperament  of  the  delinquent  has 
more  in  common  with  the  pecuniary  and  leisure  classes 
than  with  the  industrial  man  or  with  the  class  of  shift¬ 
less  dependents. 

Life  in  a  modern  industrial  community,  or  in  other 
words  life  under  the  pecuniary  culture,  acts  by  a  process 
of  selection  to  develop  and  conserve  a  certain  range  of 
aptitudes  and  propensities.  The  present  tendency  of 
this  selective  process  is  not  simply  a  reversion  to  a 
given,  immutable  ethnic  type.  It  tends  rather  to  a 
modification  of  human  nature  differing  in  some  respects 
from  any  of  the  types  or  variants  transmitted  out  of  the 
past.  The  objective  point  of  the  evolution  is  not  a 
single  one.  The  temperament  which  the  evolution  acts 
to  establish  as  normal  differs  from  any  one  of  the  archaic 
variants  of  human  nature  in  its  greater  stability  of  aim 
—  greater  singleness  of  purpose  and  greater  persistence 


The  Consen’ation  of  Archaic  Traits  239 

in  effort.  So  far  as  concerns  economic  theory,  the  ob¬ 
jective  point  of  the  selective  process  is  on  the  whole 
single  to  this  extent ;  although  there  are  minor  tenden¬ 
cies  of  considerable  importance  diverging  from  this  line 
of  development.  But  apart  from  this  general  trend  the 
line  of  development  is  not  single.  As  concerns  eco¬ 
nomic  theory,  the  development  in  other  respects  runs  on 
two  divergent  lines.  So  far  as  regards  the  selective 
conservation  of  capacities  or  aptitudes  in  individuals, 
these  two  lines  may  be  called  the  pecuniary  and  the 
industrial.  As  regards  the  conservation  of  propensities, 
spiritual  attitude,  or  animus,  the  two  may  be  called  the 
invidious  or  self-regarding  and  the  non-in vidious  or 
economical.  As  regards  the  intellectual  or  cognitive 
bent  of  the  two  directions  of  growth,  the  former  may  be 
characterised  as  the  personal  standpoint,  of  conation, 
qualitative  relation,  status,  or  worth  ;  the  latter  as  the 
impersonal  standpoint,  of  sequence,  quantitative  rela¬ 
tion,  mechanical  efficiency,  or  use. 

The  pecuniary  employments  call  into  action  chiefly 
the  former  of  these  two  ranges  of  aptitudes  and  pro¬ 
pensities,  and  act  selectively  to  conserve  them  in  the 
population.  The  industrial  employments,  on  the  other 
hand,  chiefly  exercise  the  latter  range,  and  act  to  con¬ 
serve  them.  An  exhaustive  psychological  analysis  will 
show  that  each  of  these  two  ranges  of  aptitudes  and 
propensities  is  but  the  multiform  expression  of  a  given 
temperamental  bent.  By  force  of  the  unity  or  single¬ 
ness  of  the  individual,  the  aptitudes,  animus,  and  inter¬ 
ests  comprised  in  the  first-named  range  belong  together 
as  expressions  of  a  given  variant  of  human  nature.  /The 


240  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

like  is  true  of  the  latter  range.  The  two  may  be  con¬ 
ceived  as  alternative  directions  of  human  life,  in  such  a 
way  that  a  given  individual  inclines  more  or  less  con¬ 
sistently  to  the  one  or  the  other.  The  tendency  of 
the  pecuniary  life  is,  in  a  general  way,  to  conserve  the 
barbarian  temperament,  but  with  the  substitution  of 
fraud  and  prudence,  or  administrative  ability,  in  place 
of  that  predilection  for  physical  damage  that  charac¬ 
terises  the  early  barbarian.  This  substitution  of  chicane 
in  place  of  devastation  takes  place  only  in  an  uncertain 
degree.  Within  the  pecuniary  employments  the  selec¬ 
tive  action  runs  pretty  consistently  in  this  direction,  but 
the  discipline  of  pecuniary  life,  outside  the  competition 
for  gain,  does  not  work  consistently  to  the  same  effect. 
The  discipline  of  modern  life  in  the  consumption  of 
time  and  goods  does  not  act  unequivocally  to  eliminate 
the  aristocratic  virtues  or  to  foster  the  bourgeois  virtues. 
The  conventional  scheme  of  decent  living  calls  for  a 
considerable  exercise  of  the  earlier  barbarian  traits. 
Some  details  of  this  traditional  scheme  of  life,  bearing 
on  this  point,  have  been  noticed  in  earlier  chapters 
under  the  head  of  Leisure,  and  further  details  will  be 
shown  in  later  chapters. 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  appears  that  the  leisure- 
class  life  and  the  leisure-class  scheme  of  life  should 
further  the  conservation  of  the  barbarian  temperament ; 
chiefly  of  the  quasi-peaceable,  or  bourgeois,  variant,  but 
also  in  some  measure  of  the  predatory  variant.  In  the 
absence  of  disturbing  factors,  therefore,  it  should  be 
possible  to  trace  a  difference  of  temperament  between 
the  classes  of  society.  The  aristocratic  and  the  bour- 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits  241 

geois  virtues  —  that  is  to  say  the  destructive  and  pecuni¬ 
ary  traits  —  should  be  found  chiefly  among  the  upper 
classes,  and  the  industrial  virtues  —  that  is  to  say  the 
peaceable  traits  —  chiefly  among  the  classes  given  to 
mechanical  industry. 

In  a  general  and  uncertain  way  this  holds  true,  but 
the  test  is  not  so  readily  applied  nor  so  conclusive  as 
might  be  wished.  There  are  several  assignable  reasons 
for  its  partial  failure.  All  classes  are  in  a  measure  en¬ 
gaged  in  the  pecuniary  struggle,  and  in  all  classes  the 
possession  of  the  pecuniary  traits  counts  towards  the 
success  and  survival  of  the  individual.  Wherever  the  pe¬ 
cuniary  culture  prevails,  the  selective  process  by  which 
men’s  habits  of  thought  are  shaped,  and  by  which  the 
survival  of  rival  lines  of  descent  is  decided,  proceeds 
proximately  on  the  basis  of  fitness  for  acquisition.  Con¬ 
sequently,  if  it  were  not  for  the  fact  that  pecuniary 
efficiency  is  on  the  whole  incompatible  with  industrial 
efficiency,  the  selective  action  of  all  occupations  would 
tend  to  the  unmitigated  dominance  of  the  pecuniary 
temperament.  The  result  would  be  the  installation  of 
what  has  been  known  as  the  “economic  man,”  as  the 
normal  and  definitive  type  of  human  nature.  But 
the  “economic  man,”  whose  only  interest  is  the 
self-regarding  one  and  whose  only  human  trait  is 
prudence,  is  useless  for  the  purposes  of  modern 
industry. 

The  modern  industry  requires  an  impersonal,  non- 
invidious  interest  in  the  work  in  hand.  Without  this 
the  elaborate  processes  of  industry  would  be  impossi¬ 
ble,  and  would,  indeed,  never  have  been  conceived. 


242  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

This  interest  in  work  differentiates  the  workman  from 
the  criminal  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  the  captain  of 
industry  on  the  other.  Since  work  must  be  done  in 
order  to  the  continued  life  of  the  community,  there 
results  a  qualified  selection  favouring  the  spiritual  apti¬ 
tude  for  work,  within  a  certain  range  of  occupations. 
This  much,  however,  is  to  be  conceded,  that  even  within 
the  industrial  occupations  the  selective  elimination  of 
the  pecuniary  traits  is  an  uncertain  process,  and  that 
there  is  consequently  an  appreciable  survival  of  the 
barbarian  temperament  even  within  these  occupations. 
On  this  account  there  is  at  present  no  broad  distinc¬ 
tion  in  this  respect  between  the  leisure-class  charac¬ 
ter  and  the  character  of  the  common  run  of  the 
population. 

The  whole  question  as  to  a  class  distinction  in  re¬ 
spect  of  spiritual  make-up  is  also  obscured  by  the 
presence,  in  all  classes  of  society,  of  acquired  habits  of 
life  that  closely  simulate  inherited  traits  and  at  the 
same  time  act  to  develop  in  the  entire  body  of  the 
population  the  traits  which  they  simulate.  These 
acquired  habits,  or  assumed  traits  of  character,  are 
most  commonly  of  an  aristocratic  cast.  The  prescrip¬ 
tive  position  of  the  leisure  class  as  the  exemplar  of 
reputability  has  imposed  many  features  of  the  leisure- 
class  theory  of  life  upon  the  lower  classes  ;  with  the 
result  that  there  goes  on,  always  and  throughout  society, 
a  more  or  less  persistent  cultivation  of  these  aristo¬ 
cratic  traits.  On  this  ground  also  these  traits  have  a 
better  chance  of  survival  among  the  body  of  the  people 
than  would  be  the  case  if  it  were  not  for  the  precept 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits 


243 


and  example  of  the  leisure  class.  As  one  channel,  and 
an  important  one,  through  which  this  transfusion  of 
aristocratic  views  of  life,  and  consequently  more  or  less 
archaic  traits  of  character,  goes  on,  may  be  mentioned 
the  class  of  domestic  servants.  These  have  their 
notions  of  what  is  good  and  beautiful  shaped  by  con¬ 
tact  with  the  master  class  and  carry  the  preconceptions 
so  acquired  back  among  their  low-born  equals,  and  so 
disseminate  the  higher  ideals  abroad  through  the  com¬ 
munity  without  the  loss  of  time  which  this  dissemi¬ 
nation  might  otherwise  suffer.  The  saying,  “  Like 
master,  like  man,”  has  a  greater  significance  than  is 
commonly  appreciated  for  the  rapid  popular  acceptance 
of  many  elements  of  upper-class  culture. 

There  is  also  a  further  range  of  facts  that  go  to  lessen 
class  differences  as  regards  the  survival  of  the  pecuniary 
virtues.  The  pecuniary  struggle  produces  an  underfed 
class,  of  large  proportions.  This  underfeeding  consists 
in  a  deficiency  of  the  necessaries  of  life  or  of  the  neces¬ 
saries  of  a  decent  expenditure.  In  either  case  the 
result  is  a  closely  enforced  struggle  for  the  means  with 
which  to  meet  the  daily  needs ;  whether  it  be  the 
physical  or  the  higher  needs.  The  strain  of  self-asser¬ 
tion  against  odds  takes  up  the  whole  energy  of  the 
individual;  he  bends  his  efforts  to  compass  his  own 
invidious  ends  alone,  and  becomes  continually  more 
narrowly  self-seeking.  The  industrial  traits  in  this  way 
tend  to  obsolescence  through  disuse.  Indirectly,  there¬ 
fore,  by  imposing  a  scheme  of  pecuniary  decency  and 
by  withdrawing  as  much  as  may  be  of  the  means  of  life 
from  the  lower  classes,  the  institution  of  a  leisure  class 


244  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

acts  to  conserve  the  pecuniary  traits  in  the  body  of  the 
population.  The  result  is  an  assimilation  of  the  lower 
classes  to  the  type  of  human  nature  that  belongs  pri¬ 
marily  to  the  upper  classes  only. 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  there  is  no  wide  difference 
in  temperament  between  the  upper  and  the  lower 
classes ;  but  it  appears  also  that  the  absence  of  such  a 
difference  is  in  good  part  due  to  the  prescriptive  ex¬ 
ample  of  the  leisure  class  and  to  the  popular  acceptance 
of  those  broad  principles  of  conspicuous  waste  and 
pecuniary  emulation  on  which  the  institution  of  a 
leisure  class  rests.  The  institution  acts  to  lower  the 
industrial  efficiency  of  the  community  and  retard  the 
adaptation  of  human  nature  to  the  exigencies  of  modern 
industrial  life.  It  affects  the  prevalent  or  effective 
human  nature  in  a  conservative  direction,  (i)  by  direct 
transmission  of  archaic  traits,  through  inheritance 
within  the  class  and  wherever  the  leisure-class  blood 
is  transfused  outside  the  class,  and  (2)  by  conserving 
and  fortifying  the  traditions  of  the  archaic  regime,  and 
so  making  the  chances  of  survival  of  barbarian  traits 
greater  also  outside  the  range  of  transfusion  of  leisure- 
class  blood. 

But  little  if  anything  has  been  done  towards  collect¬ 
ing  or  digesting  data  that  are  of  special  significance  for 
the  question  of  survival  or  elimination  of  traits  in  the 
modern  populations.  Little  of  a  tangible  character 
can  therefore  be  offered  in  support  of  the  view  here 
taken,  beyond  a  discursive  review  of  such  everyday 
facts  as  lie  ready  to  hand.  Such  a  recital  can  scarcely 
avoid  being  commonplace  and  tedious,  but  for  all  that 


The  Conservation  of  Archaic  Traits 


245 


it  seems  necessary  to  the  completeness  of  the  argument, 
even  in  the  meagre  outline  in  which  it  is  here  attempted. 
A  degree  of  indulgence  may  therefore  fairly  be  be¬ 
spoken  for  the  succeeding  chapters,  which  offer  a  frag¬ 
mentary  recital  of  this  kind. 


CHAPTER  X 


Modern  Survivals  of  Prowess 

The  leisure  class  lives  by  the  industrial  community 
rather  than  in  it.  Its  relations  to  industry  are  of  a 
pecuniary  rather  than  an  industrial  kind.  Admission 
to  the  class  is  gained  by  exercise  of  the  pecuniary  apti¬ 
tudes —  aptitudes  for  acquisition  rather  than  for  service¬ 
ability.  There  is,  therefore,  a  continued  selective  sifting 
of  the  human  material  that  makes  up  the  leisure  class, 
and  this  selection  proceeds  on  the  ground  of  fitness  for 
pecuniary  pursuits.  But  the  scheme  of  life  of  the  class 
is  in  large  part  a  heritage  from  the  past,  and  embodies 
much  of  the  habits  and  ideals  of  the  earlier  barbarian 
period.  This  archaic,  barbarian  scheme  of  life  imposes 
itself  also  on  the  lower  orders,  with  more  or  less  mitiga¬ 
tion.  In  its  turn  the  scheme  of  life,  of  conventions,  acts 
selectively  and  by  education  to  shape  the  human  mate¬ 
rial,  and  its  action  runs  chiefly  in  the  direction  of  con¬ 
serving  traits,  habits,  and  ideals  that  belong  to  the  early 
barbarian  age,  —  the  age  of  prowess  and  predatory  life. 

The  most  immediate  and  unequivocal  expression  of 
that  archaic  human  nature  which  characterises  man  in 
the  predatory  stage  is  the  fighting  propensity  proper. 
In  cases  where  the  predatory  activity  is  a  collective  one, 

246 


Modern  Survivals  of  Prowess  247 

this  propensity  is  frequently  called  the  martial  spirit, 
or,  latterly,  patriotism.  It  needs  no  insistence  to  find 
assent  to  the  proposition  that  in  the  countries  of  civil¬ 
ised  Europe  the  hereditary  leisure  class  is  endowed  with 
this  martial  spirit  in  a  higher  degree  than  the  middle 
classes.  Indeed,  the  leisure  class  claims  the  distinction 
as  a  matter  of  pride,  and  no  doubt  with  some  grounds. 
War  is  honourable,  and  warlike  prowess  is  eminently 
honorific  in  the  eyes  of  the  generality  of  men ;  and  this 
admiration  of  warlike  prowess  is  itself  the  best  voucher 
of  a  predatory  temperament  in  the  admirer  of  war.  The 
enthusiasm  for  war,  and  the  predatory  temper  of  which 
it  is  the  index,  prevail  in  the  largest  measure  among 
the  upper  classes,  especially  among  the  hereditary  lei¬ 
sure  class.  Moreover,  the  ostensible  serious  occupation 
of  the  upper  class  is  that  of  government,  which,  in  point 
of  origin  and  developmental  content,  is  also  a  predatory 
occupation. 

The  only  class  which  could  at  all  dispute  with  the 
hereditary  leisure  class  the  honour  of  an  habitual  belli¬ 
cose  frame  of  mind  is  that  of  the  lower-class  delinquents. 
In  ordinary  times,  the  large  body  of  the  industrial  classes 
is  relatively  apathetic  touching  warlike  interests.  When 
unexcited,  this  body  of  the  common  people,  which  makes 
up  the  effective  force  of  the  industrial  community,  is 
rather  averse  to  any  other  than  a  defensive  fight ;  in¬ 
deed,  it  responds  a  little  tardily  even  to  a  provocation 
which  makes  for  an  attitude  of  defence.  In  the  more 
civilised  communities,  or  rather  in  the  communities 
which  have  reached  an  advanced  industrial  develop¬ 
ment,  the  spirit  of  warlike  aggression  may  be  said  to  be 


248  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

obsolescent  among  the  common  people.  This  does  not 
say  that  there  is  not  an  appreciable  number  of  individu¬ 
als  among  the  industrial  classes  in  whom  the  martial 
spirit  asserts  itself  obtrusively.  Nor  does  it  say  that 
the  body  of  the  people  may  not  be  fired  with  martial 
ardour  for  a  time  under  the  stimulus  of  some  special 
provocation,  such  as  is  seen  in  operation  to-day  in  more 
than  one  of  the  countries  of  Europe,  and  for  the  time  in 
America.  But  except  for  such  seasons  of  temporary 
exaltation,  and  except  for  those  individuals  who  are  en¬ 
dowed  with  an  archaic  temperament  of  the  predatory 
type,  together  with  the  similarly  endowed  body  of  indi¬ 
viduals  among  the  higher  and  the  lowest  classes,  the 
inertness  of  the  mass  of  any  modern  civilised  com¬ 
munity  in  this  respect  is  probably  so  great  as  would 
make  war  impracticable,  except  against  actual  invasion. 
The  habits  and  aptitudes  of  the  common  run  of  men 
make  for  an  unfolding  of  activity  in  other,  less  pictu¬ 
resque  directions  than  that  of  war. 

This  class  difference  in  temperament  may  be  due  in 
part  to  a  difference  in  the  inheritance  of  acquired  traits 
in  the  several  classes,  but  it  seems  also,  in  some  meas¬ 
ure,  to  correspond  with  a  difference  in  ethnic  derivation. 
The  class  difference  is  in  this  respect  visibly  less  in 
those  countries  whose  population  is  relatively  homo¬ 
geneous,  ethnically,  than  in  the  countries  where  there  is 
a  broader  divergence  between  the  ethnic  elements  that 
make  up  the  several  classes  of  the  community.  In  the 
same  connection  it  may  be  noted  that  the  later  acces¬ 
sions  to  the  leisure  class  in  the  latter  countries,  in  a 
general  way,  show  less  of  the  martial  spirit  than  con- 


Modern  Survivals  of  Prowess 


249 


temporary  representatives  of  the  aristocracy  of  the 
ancient  line.  These  nouveaux  arrives  have  recently 
emerged  from  the  commonplace  body  of  the  population 
and  owe  their  emergence  into  the  leisure  class  to  the 
exercise  of  traits  and  propensities  which  are  not  to  be 
classed  as  prowess  in  the  ancient  sense. 

Apart  from  warlike  activity  proper,  the  institution  of 
the  duel  is  also  an  expression  of  the  same  superior  readi¬ 
ness  for  combat ;  and  the  duel  is  a  leisure-class  institu¬ 
tion.  The  duel  is  in  substance  a  more  or  less  deliberate 
resort  to  a  fight  as  a  final  settlement  of  a  difference  of 
opinion.  In  civilised  communities  it  prevails  as  a  normal 
phenomenon  only  where  there  is  an  hereditary  leisure 
class,  and  almost  exclusively  among  that  class.  The 
exceptions  are  (1)  military  and  naval  officers  —  who  are 
ordinarily  members  of  the  leisure  class,  and  who  are  at 
the  same  time  specially  trained  to  predatory  habits  of 
mind  —  and  (2)  the  lower-class  delinquents  —  who  are 
by  inheritance,  or  training,  or  both,  of  a  similarly  preda¬ 
tory  disposition  and  habit.  It  is  only  the  high-bred 
gentleman  and  the  rowdy  that  normally  resort  to  blows 
as  the  universal  solvent  of  differences  of  opinion.  The 
'plain  man  will  ordinarily  fight  only  when  excessive 
momentary  irritation  or  alcoholic  exaltation  act  to  in¬ 
hibit  the  more  complex  habits  of  response  to  the  stimuli 
that  make  for  provocation.  He  is  then  thrown  back 
upon  the  simpler,  less  differentiated  forms  of  the  in¬ 
stinct  of  self-assertion  ;  that  is  to  say,  he  reverts  tem¬ 
porarily  and  without  reflection  to  an  archaic  habit  of 
mind. 

This  institution  of  the  duel  as  a  mode  of  finally 


250  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

» 

settling  disputes  and  serious  questions  of  precedence 
shades  off  into  the  obligatory,  unprovoked  private  fight, 
as  a  social  obligation  due  to  one’s  good  repute.  As  a 
leisure-class  usage  of  this  kind  we  have,  particularly, 
that  bizarre  survival  of  bellicose  chivalry,  the  German 
student  duel.  In  the  lower  or  spurious  leisure  class 
of  the  delinquents  there  is  in  all  countries  a  similar, 
though  less  formal,  social  obligation  incumbent  on  the 
rowdy  to  assert  his  manhood  in  unprovoked  combat 
with  his  fellows.  And  spreading  through  all  grades  of 
society,  a  similar  usage  prevails  among  the  boys  of  the 
community.  The  boy  usually  knows  to  a  nicety,  from 
day  to  day,  how  he  and  his  associates  grade  in  respect 
of  relative  fighting  capacity ;  and  in  the  community  of 
boys  there  is  ordinarily  no  secure  basis  of  reputability 
for  any  one  who,  by  exception,  will  not  or  can  not  fight 
on  invitation. 

All  this  applies  especially  to  boys  above  a  certain 
somewhat  vague  limit  of  maturity.  The  child’s  tem¬ 
perament  does  not  commonly  answer  to  this  description 
during  infancy  and  the  years  of  close  tutelage,  when  the 
child  still  habitually  seeks  contact  with  its  mother  at 
every  turn  of  its  daily  life.  During  this  earlier  period 
there  is  little  aggression  and  little  propensity  for  an¬ 
tagonism.  The  transition  from  this  peaceable  temper 
to  the  predaceous,  and  in  extreme  cases  malignant,  mis¬ 
chievousness  of  the  boy  is  a  gradual  one,  and  it  is  ac¬ 
complished  with  more  completeness,  covering  a  larger 
range  of  the  individual’s  aptitudes,  in  some  cases  than 
in  others.  In  the  earlier  stage  of  his  growth,  the  child, 
whether  boy  or  girl,  shows  less  of  initiative  and  aggres- 


Modern  Survivals  of  Prowess  251 

sive  self-assertion  and  less  of  an  inclination  to  isolate 
himself  and  his  interests  from  the  domestic  group  in 
which  he  lives,  and  he  shows  more  of  sensitiveness  to 
rebuke,  bashfulness,  timidity,  and  the  need  of  friendly 
human  contact.  In  the'common  run  of  cases  this  early 
temperament  passes,  by  a  gradual  but  somewhat  rapid 
obsolescence  of  the  infantile  features,  into  the  tempera¬ 
ment  of  the  boy  proper ;  though  there  are  also  cases 
where  the  predaceous  features  of  boy  life  do  not  emerge 
at  all,  or  at  the  most  emerge  in  but  a  slight  and 
obscure  degree. 

In  girls  the  transition  to  the  predaceous  stage  is  seldom 
accomplished  with  the  same  degree  of  completeness  as 
in  boys  ;  and  in  a  relatively  large  proportion  of  cases  it 
is  scarcely  undergone  at  all.  In  such  cases  the  tran¬ 
sition  from  infancy  to  adolescence  and  maturity  is  a 
gradual  and  unbroken  process  of  the  shifting  of  interest 
from  infantile  purposes  and  aptitudes  to  the  purposes, 
functions,  and  relations  of  adult  life.  In  the  girls  there 
is  a  less  general  prevalence  of  a  predaceous  interval  in 
the  development  ;  and  in  the  cases  where  it  occurs, 
the  predaceous  and  isolating  attitude  during  the  inter¬ 
val  is  commonly  less  accentuated. 

In  the  male  child  the  predaceous  interval  is  ordinarily 
fairly  well  marked  and  lasts  for  some  time,  but  it  is 
commonly  terminated  (if  at  all)  with  the  attainment  of 
maturity.  This  last  statement  may  need  very  material 
qualification.  The  cases  are  by  no  means  rare  in  which 
the  transition  from  the  boyish  to  the  adult  temperament 
is  not  made,  or  is  made  only  partially — understanding 
by  the  “adult”  temperament  the  average  temperament 


252  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

of  those  adult  individuals  in  modern  industrial  life  who 
have  some  serviceability  for  the  purposes  of  the  collec¬ 
tive  life  process,  and  who  may  therefore  be  said  to  make 
up  the  effective  average  of  the  industrial  community. 

The  ethnic  composition  of  the  European  populations 
varies.  In  some  cases  even  the  lower  classes  are  in 
large  measure  made  up  of  the  peace-disturbing  dolicho- 
blond ;  while  in  others  this  ethnic  element  is  found 
chiefly  among  the  hereditary  leisure  class.  The  fighting 
habit  seems  to  prevail  to  a  less  extent  among  the  work¬ 
ing-class  boys  in  the  latter  class  of  populations  than 
among  the  boys  of  the  upper  classes  or  among  those  of 
the  populations  first  named. 

If  this  generalisation  as  to  the  temperament  of  the 
boy  among  the  working  classes  should  be  found  true  on 
a  fuller  and  closer  scrutiny  of  the  field,  it  would  add 
force  to  the  view  that  the  bellicose  temperament  is  in 
some  appreciable  degree  a  race  characteristic  ;  it  appears 
to  enter  more  largely  into  the  make-up  of  the  dominant, 
upper-class  ethnic  type  —  the  dolicho-blond  —  of  the 
European  countries  than  into  the  subservient,  lower- 
class  types  of  man  which  are  conceived  to  constitute 
the  body  of  the  population  of  the  same  communities. 

The  case  of  the  boy  may  seem  not  to  bear  seriously 
on  the  question  of  the  relative  endowment  of  prowess 
with  which  the  several  classes  of  society  are  gifted  ; 
but  it  is  at  least  of  some  value  as  going  to  show  that 
this  fighting  impulse  belongs  to  a  more  archaic  tem¬ 
perament  than  that  possessed  by  the  average  adult  man 
of  the  industrious  classes.  In  this,  as  in  many  other 
features  of  child  life,  the  child  reproduces,  temporarily 


Modern  Survivals  of  Prowess  253 

and  in  miniature,  some  of  the  earlier  phases  of  the 
development  of  adult  man.  Under  this  interpretation, 
the  boy’s  predilection  for  exploit  and  for  isolation  of  his 
own  interest  is  to  be  taken  as  a  transient  reversion  to 
the  human  nature  that  is  normal  to  the  early  barbarian 
culture  —  the  predatory  culture  proper.  In  this  re¬ 
spect,  as  in  much  else,  the  leisure-class  and  the  delin¬ 
quent-class  character  shows  a  persistence  into  adult 
life  of  traits  that  are  normal  to  childhood  and  youth, 
and  that  are  likewise  normal  or  habitual  to  the  earlier 
stages  of  culture.  Unless  the  difference  is  traceable 
entirely  to  a  fundamental  difference  between  persistent 
ethnic  types,  the  traits  that  distinguish  the  swaggering 
delinquent  and  the  punctilious  gentleman  of  leisure 
from  the  common  crowd  are,  in  some  measure,  marks 
of  an  arrested  spiritual  development.  They  mark  an 
immature  phase,  as  compared  with  the  stage  of  devel¬ 
opment  attained  by  the  average  of  the  adults  in  the 
modern  industrial  community.  And  it  will  appear 
presently  that  the  puerile  spiritual  make-up  of  these 
representatives  of  the  upper  and  the  lowest  social  strata 
shows  itself  also  in  the  presence  of  other  archaic  traits 
than  this  proclivity  to  ferocious  exploit  and  isolation. 

As  if  to  leave  no  doubt  about  the  essential  immaturity 
of  the  fighting  temperament,  we  have,  bridging  the 
interval  between  legitimate  boyhood  and  adult  man¬ 
hood,  the  aimless  and  playful,  but  more  or  less  syste¬ 
matic  and  elaborate,  disturbances  of  the  peace  in  vogue 
among  schoolboys  of  a  slightly  higher  age.  In  the  com¬ 
mon  run  of  cases,  these  disturbances  are  confined  to 
the  period  of  adolescence.  They  recur  with  decreasing 


254  77/<?  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

frequency  and  acuteness  as  youth  merges  into  adult 
life,  and  so  they  reproduce,  in  a  general  way,  in  the 
life  of  the  individual,  the  sequence  by  which  the  group 
has  passed  from  the  predatory  to  a  more  settled  habit 
of  life.  In  an  appreciable  number  of  cases  the  spiritual 
growth  of  the  individual  comes  to  a  close  before  he 
emerges  from  this  puerile  phase  ;  in  these  cases  the 
fighting  temper  persists  through  life.  Those  individ¬ 
uals  who  in  spiritual  development  eventually  reach 
man’s  estate,  therefore,  ordinarily  pass  through  a  tem¬ 
porary  archaic  phase  corresponding  to  the  permanent 
spiritual  level  of  the  fighting  and  sporting  men.  Qif- 
ferent  individuals  will  of  course  achieve  spiritual  matur¬ 
ity  and  sobriety  in  this  respect  in  different  degrees  ; 
and  those  who  fail  of  the  average  remain  as  an  undis¬ 
solved  residue  of  crude  humanity  in  the  modern  indus¬ 
trial  community  and  as  a  foil  for  that  selective  process 
of  adaptation  which  makes  for  a  heightened  industrial 
efficiency  and  the  fulness  of  life  of  the  collectivity.. 

This  arrested  spiritual  development  may  express  it¬ 
self  not  only  in  a  direct  participation  by  adults  in  youth¬ 
ful  exploits  of  ferocity,  but  also  indirectly  in  aiding 
and  abetting  disturbances  of  this  kind  on  the  part  of 
younger  persons.  It  thereby  furthers  the  formation 
of  habits  of  ferocity  which  may  persist  in  the  later  life 
of  the  growing  generation,  and  so  retard  any  move¬ 
ment  in  the  direction  of  a  more  peaceable  effective  tem¬ 
perament  on  the  part  of  the  community.  If  a  person 
so  endowed  with  a  proclivity  for  exploits  is  in  a  position 
to  guide  the  development  of  habits  in  the  adolescent 
members  of  the  community,  the  influence  which  he 


Modern  Survivals  of  Prozvess  255 

exerts  in  the  direction  of  conservation  and  reversion  to 
prowess  may  be  very  considerable.  This  is  the  signifi¬ 
cance,  for  instance,  of  the  fostering  care  latterly  be¬ 
stowed  by  many  clergymen  and  other  pillars  of  society 
upon  “boys’  brigades”  and  similar  pseudo-military 
organisations.  The  same  is  true  of  the  encouragement 
given  to  the  growth  of  “  college  spirit,”  college  athletics, 
and  the  like,  in  the  higher  institutions  of  learning. 

These  manifestations  of  the  predatory  temperament 
are  all  to  be  classed  under  the  head  of  exploit. 
They  are  partly  simple  and  unreflected  expressions  of 
an  attitude  of  emulative  ferocity,  partly  activities  de¬ 
liberately  entered  upon  with  a  view  to  gaining  repute 
for  prowess.  Sports  of  all  kinds  are  of  the  same 
general  character,  including  prize  fights,  bull  fights, 
athletics,  shooting,  angling,  yachting,  and  games  of 
skill,  even  where  the  element  of  destructive  physical 
efficiency  is  not  an  obtrusive  feature.  Sports  shade 
off  from  the  basis  of  hostile  combat,  through  skill,  to 
cunning  and  chicanery,  without  its  being  possible  to 
draw  a  line  at  any  point.  The  ground  of  an  addiction 
to  sports  is  an  archaic  spiritual  constitution  —  the  pos¬ 
session  of  the  predatory  emulative  propensity  in  a 
relatively  high  potency.  A  strong  proclivity  to  adven¬ 
turesome  exploit  and  to  the  infliction  of  damage  is 
especially  pronounced  in  those  employments  which  are 
in  colloquial  usage  specifically  called  sportsmanship. 

It  is  perhaps  truer,  or  at  least  more  evident,  as 
regards  sports  than  as  regards  the  other  expressions 
of  predatory  emulation  already  spoken  of,  that  the 
temperament  which  inclines  men  to  them  is  essentially 


256  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

\ 

a  boyish  temperament.  The  addiction  to  sports,  there¬ 
fore,  in  a  peculiar  degree  marks  an  arrested  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  man’s  moral  nature.  This  peculiar  boy¬ 
ishness  of  temperament  in  sporting  men  immediately 
becomes  apparent  when  attention  is  directed  to  the 
large  element  of  make-believe  that  is  present  in  all 
sporting  activity.  Sports  share  this  character  of  make- 
believe  with  the  games  and  exploits  to  which  children, 
especially  boys,  are  habitually  inclined.  Make-believe 
does  not  enter  in  the  same  proportion  into  all  sports, 
but  it  is  present  in  a  very  appreciable  degree  in  all. 
It  is  apparently  present  in  a  larger  measure  in  sports¬ 
manship  proper  and  in  athletic  contests  than  in  set 
games  of  skill  of  a  more  sedentary  character;  although 
this  rule  may  not  be  found  to  apply  with  any  great 
uniformity.  It  is  noticeable,  for  instance,  that  even 
very  mild-mannered  and  matter-of-fact  men  who  go  out 
shooting  are  apt  to  carry  an  excess  of  arms  and  accou¬ 
trements  in  order  to  impress  upon  their  own  imagina¬ 
tion  the  seriousness  of  their  undertaking.  These 
huntsmen  are  also  prone  to  a  histrionic,  prancing  gait 
and  to  an  elaborate  exaggeration  of  the  motions, 
whether  of  stealth  or  of  onslaught,  involved  in  their 
deeds  of  exploit.  Similarly  in  athletic  sports  there  is 
almost  invariably  present  a  good  share  of  rant  and 
swagger  and  ostensible  mystification  —  features  which 
mark  the  histrionic  nature  of  these  employments.  In 
all  this  of  course  the  reminder  of  boyish  make-believe 
is  plain  enough.  The  slang  of  athletics,  by  the  way, 
is  in  great  part  made  up  of  extremely  sanguinary  locu¬ 
tions  borrowed  from  the  terminology  of  warfare.  Ex- 


Modern  Survivals  of  Prowess  257 

cept  where  it  is  adopted  as  a  necessary  means  of  secret 
communication,  the  use  of  a  special  slang  in  any  employ¬ 
ment  is  probably  to  be  accepted  as  evidence  that  the 
occupation  in  question  is  substantially  make-believe. 

A  further  feature  in  which  sports  differ  from  the 
duel  and  similar  disturbances  of  the  peace  is  the  pecu¬ 
liarity  that  they  admit  of  other  motives  being  assigned 
for  them  besides  the  impulses  of  exploit  and  ferocity. 
There  is  probably  little  if  any  other  motive  present  in 
any  given  case,  but  the  fact  that  other  reasons  for 
indulging  in  sports  are  frequently  assigned  goes  to  say 
that  other  grounds  are  sometimes  present  in  a  subsidi¬ 
ary  way.  Sportsmen —  hunters  and  anglers  —  are  more 
or  less  in  the  habit  of  assigning  a  love  of  nature,  the 
need  of  recreation,  and  the  like,  as  the  incentives  to 
their  favourite  pastime.  These  motives  are  no  doubt 
frequently  present  and  make  up  a  part  of  the  attractive¬ 
ness  of  the  sportsman’s  life ;  but  these  can  not  be  the 
chief  incentives.  These  ostensible  needs  could  be  more 
readily  and  fully  satisfied  without  the  accompaniment 
of  a  systematic  effort  to  take  the  life  of  those  creatures 
that  make  up  an  essential  feature  of  that  “nature” 
that  is  beloved  by  the  sportsman.  It  is,  indeed,  the 
most  noticeable  effect  of  the  sportsman’s  activity  to 
keep  nature  in  a  state  of  chronic  desolation  by  kill¬ 
ing  off  all  living  things  whose  destruction  he  can 
compass. 

Still,  there  is  ground  for  the  sportsman’s  claim  that 
under  the  existing  conventionalities  his  need  of  recre¬ 
ation  and  of  contact  with  nature  can  best  be  satisfied 
by  the  course  which  he  takes.  Certain  canons  of  good 


25  8  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

breeding  have  been  imposed  by  the  prescriptive  exam¬ 
ple  of  a  predatory  leisure  class  in  the  past  and  have 
been  somewhat  painstakingly  conserved  by  the  usage 
of  the  latter-day  representatives  of  that  class ;  and  these 
canons  will  not  permit  him,  without  blame,  to  seek 
contact  with  nature  on  other  terms.  From  being  an 
honourable  employment  handed  down  from  the  predatory 
culture  as  the  highest  form  of  everyday  leisure,  sports 
have  come  to  be  the  only  form  of  outdoor  activity  that 
has  the  full  sanction  of  decorum.  Among  the  proxi¬ 
mate  incentives  to  shooting  and  angling,  then,  may  be 
the  need  of  recreation  and  outdoor  life.  The  remoter 
cause  which  imposes  the  necessity  of  seeking'  these 
objects  under  the  cover  of  systematic  slaughter  is  a 
prescription  which  can  not  be  violated  except  at  the 
risk  of  disrepute  and  consequent  lesion  to  one’s  self- 
respect. 

The  case  of  other  kinds  of  sport  is  somewhat  similar. 
Of  these,  athletic  games  are  the  best  example.  Pre¬ 
scriptive  usage  with  respect  to  what  forms  of  activity, 
exercise,  and  recreation  are  permissible  under  the  code 
of  reputable  living  is  of  course  present  here  also. 
Those  who  are  addicted  to  athletic  sports,  or  who 
admire  them,  set  up  the  claim  that  these  afford  the 
best  available  means  of  recreation  and  of  “physical 
culture.”  And  prescriptive  usage  gives  countenance 
to  the  claim.  The  canons  of  reputable  living  exclude 
from  the  scheme  of  life  of  the  leisure  class  all  activity 
that  can  not  be  classed  as  conspicuous  leisure.  And 
consequently  they  tend  by  prescription  to  exclude  it 
also  from  the  scheme  of  life  of  the  community  gen- 


Modern  Survivals  of  Prozvess  259 

erally.  At  the  same  time  purposeless  physical  exer¬ 
tion  is  tedious  and  distasteful  beyond  tolerance.  As 
has  been  noticed  in  another  connection,  recourse  is  in 
such  a  case  had  to  some  form  of  activity  which  shall  at 
least  afford  a  colourable  pretence  of  purpose,  even  if  the 
object  assigned  be  only  a  make-believe.  Sports  satisfy 
these  requirements  of  substantial  futility  together  with 
a  colourable  make-believe  of  purpose.  In  addition  to 
this  they  afford  scope  for  emulation,  and  are  attractive 
also  on  that  account.  In  order  to  be  decorous,  an 
employment  must  conform  to  the  leisure-class  canon 
of  reputable  waste ;  at  the  same  time  all  activity,  in 
order  to  be  persisted  in  as  an  habitual,  even  if  only 
partial,  expression  of  life,  must  conform  to  the  generi- 
cally  'human  canon  of  efficiency  for  some  serviceable 
objective  end.  The  leisure-class  canon  demands  strict 
and  comprehensive  futility ;  the  instinct  of  workman¬ 
ship  demands  purposeful  action.  The  leisure-class 
canon  of  decorum  acts  slowly  and  pervasively,  by  a 
selective  elimination  of  all  substantially  useful  or  pur¬ 
poseful  modes  of  action  from  the  accredited  scheme  of 
life;  the  instinct  of  workmanship  acts  impulsively  and 
may  be  satisfied,  provisionally,  with  a  proximate  pur¬ 
pose.  It  is  only  as  the  apprehended  ulterior  futility 
of  a  given  line  of  action  enters  the  reflective  complex 
of  consciousness  as  an  element  essentially  alien  to  the 
normally  purposeful  trend  of  the  life  process  that  its 
disquieting  and  deterrent  effect  on  the  consciousness 
of  the  agent  is  wrought. 

The  individual’s  habits  of  thought  make  an  organic 
complex,  the  trend  of  which  is  necessarily  in  the  direc- 


260  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

tion  of  serviceability  to  the  life  process.  When  it  is 
attempted  to  assimilate  systematic  waste  or  futility,  as 
an  end  in  life,  into  this  organic  complex,  there  pres¬ 
ently  supervenes  a  revulsion.  But  this  revulsion  of  the 
organism  may  be  avoided  if  the  attention  can  be  con¬ 
fined  to  the  proximate,  unreflected  purpose  of  dexterous 
or  emulative  exertion.  Sports  —  hunting,  angling,  ath¬ 
letic  games,  and  the  like  —  afford  an  exercise  for  dex¬ 
terity  and  for  the  emulative  ferocity  and  astuteness 
characteristic  of  predatory  life.  So  long  as  the  indi¬ 
vidual  is  but  slightly  gifted  with  reflection  or  with  a 
sense  of  the  ulterior  trend  of  his  actions,  —  so  long  as 
his  life  is  substantially  a  life  of  naive  impulsive  action, 
—  so  long  the  immediate  and  unreflected  purposeful¬ 
ness  of  sports,  in  the  way  of  an  expression  of  dominance, 
will  measurably  satisfy  his  instinct  of  workmanship. 
This  is  especially  true  if  his  dominant  impulses  are  the 
unreflecting  emulative  propensities  of  the  predaceous 
temperament.  At  the  same  time  the  canons  of  decorum 
will  commend  sports  to  him  as  expressions  of  a  pecun¬ 
iarily  blameless  life.  It  is  by  meeting  these  two 
requirements,  of  ulterior  wastefulness  and  proximate 
purposefulness,  that  any  given  employment  holds  its 
place  as  a  traditional  and  habitual  mode  of  decorous 
recreation.  In  the  sense  that  other  forms  of  recreation 
and  exercise  are  morally  impossible  to  persons  of  good 
breeding  and  delicate  sensibilities,  then,  sports  are  the 
best  available  means  of  recreation  under  existing  cir¬ 
cumstances. 

But  those  members  of  respectable  society  who  advo¬ 
cate  athletic  games  commonly  justify  their  attitude  on 


Modern  Survivals  of  Prowess  261 

this  head  to  themselves  and  to  their  neighbours  on  the 
ground  that  these  games  serve  as  an  invaluable  means 
of  development.  They  not  only  improve  the  contest¬ 
ant’s  physique,  but  it  is  commonly  added  that  they  also 
foster  a  manly  spirit,  both  in  the  participants  and  in 
the  spectators.  Football  is  the  particular  game  which 
will  probably  first  occur  to  any  one  in  this  community 
when  the  question  of  the  serviceability  of  athletic  games 
is  raised,  as  this  form  of  athletic  contest  is  at  present 
uppermost  in  the  mind  of  those  who  plead  for  or  against 
games  as  a  means  of  physical  or  moral  salvation.  This 
typical  athletic  sport  may,  therefore,  serve  to  illustrate 
the  bearing  of  athletics  upon  the  development  of  the 
contestant’s  character  and  physique.  It  has  been  said, 
not  inaptly,  that  the  relation  of  football  to  physical 
culture  is  much  the  same  as  that  of  the  bull  fight  to 
agriculture.  Serviceability  for  these  lusory  institutions 
requires  sedulous  training  or  breeding.  The  material 
used,  whether  brute  or  human,  is  subjected  to  careful 
selection  and  discipline,  in  order  to  secure  and  accentuate 
certain  aptitudes  and  propensities  which  are  character¬ 
istic  of  the  ferine  state,  and  which  tend  to  obsolescence 
under  domestication.  This  does  not  mean  that  the  re¬ 
sult  in  either  case  is  an  all-around  and  consistent  rehabili¬ 
tation  of  the  ferine  or  barbarian  habit  of  mind  and  body. 
The  result  is  rather  a  one-sided  return  to  barbarism  or 
to  the  ferce  natura  —  a  rehabilitation  and  accentuation 
of  those  ferine  traits  which  make  for  damage  and  deso¬ 
lation,  without  a  corresponding  development  of  the  traits 
which  would  serve  the  individual’s  self-preservation  and 
fulness  of  life  in  a  ferine  environment.  The  culture 


262  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

bestowed  in  football  gives  a  product  of  exotic  ferocity 
and  cunning.  It  is  a  rehabilitation  of  the  early  barba¬ 
rian  temperament,  together  with  a  suppression  of  those 
details  of  temperament  which,  as  seen  from  the  stand¬ 
point  of  the  social  and  economic  exigencies,  are  the 
redeeming  features  of  the  savage  character. 

The  physical  vigour  acquired  in  the  training  for  athletic 
games  —  so  far  as  the  training  may  be  said  to  have  this 
effect  —  is  of  advantage  both  to  the  individual  and  to 
the  collectivity,  in  that,  other  things  being  equal,  it  con¬ 
duces  to  economic  serviceability.  The  spiritual  traits 
which  go  with  athletic  sports  are  likewise  economically 
advantageous  to  the  individual,  as  contradistinguished 
from  the  interests  of  the  collectivity.  This  holds  true 
in  any  community  where  these  traits  are  present  in 
some  degree  in  the  population.  Modern  competition 
is  in  large  part  a  process  of  self-assertion  on  the  basis 
of  these  traits  of  predatory  human  nature.  In  the 
sophisticated  form  in  which  they  enter  into  the  mod¬ 
ern,  peaceable  emulation,  the  possession  of  these  traits 
in  some  measure  is  almost  a  necessary  of  life  to  the 
civilised  man.  But  while  they  are  indispensable  to  the 
competitive  individual,  they  are  not  directly  serviceable 
to  the  community.  So  far  as  regards  the  serviceability 
of  the  individual  for  the  purposes  of  the  collective  life, 
emulative  efficiency  is  of  use  only  indirectly  if  at  all. 
Ferocity  and  cunning  are  of  no  use  to  the  community 
except  in  its  hostile  dealings  with  other  communities ; 
and  they  are  useful  to  the  individual  only  because  there 
is  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  same  traits  actively  pres¬ 
ent  in  the  human  environment  to  which  he  is  exposed. 


Modern  Survivals  of  Prozvess  263 

Any  individual  who  enters  the  competitive  struggle 
without  the  due  endowment  of  these  traits  is  at  a  dis¬ 
advantage,  somewhat  as  a  hornless  steer  would  find 
himself  at  a  disadvantage  in  a  drove  of  horned  cattle. 

The  possession  and  the  cultivation  of  the  predatory 
traits  of  character  may,  of  course,  be  desirable  on  other 
than  economic  grounds.  There  is  a  prevalent  aesthetic 
or  ethical  predilection  for  the  barbarian  aptitudes,  and 
the  traits  in  question  minister  so  effectively  to  this 
predilection  that  their  serviceability  in  the  aesthetic  or 
ethical  respect  probably  offsets  any  economic  unservice¬ 
ability  which  they  may  give.  But  for  the  present  pur¬ 
pose  that  is  beside  the  point.  Therefore  nothing  is 
said  here  as  to  the  desirability  or  advisability  of  sports 
on  the  whole,  or  as  to  their  value  on  other  than  eco¬ 
nomic  grounds. 

In  popular  apprehension  there  is  much  that  is  admi¬ 
rable  in  the  type  of  manhood  which  the  life  of  sport 
fosters.  There  is  self-reliance  and  good-fellowship,  so 
termed  in  the  somewhat  loose  colloquial  use  of  the 
words.  From  a  different  point  of  view  the  qualities 
currently  so  characterised  might  be  described  as  trucu¬ 
lence  and  clannishness.  The  reason  for  the  current 
approval  and  admiration  of  these  manly  qualities,  as 
well  as  for  their  being  called  manly,  is  the  same  as  the 
reason  for  their  usefulness  to  the  individual.  The 
members  of  the  community,  and  especially  that  class  of 
the  community  which  sets  the  pace  in  canons  of  taste, 
are  endowed  with  this  range  of  propensities  in  sufficient 
measure  to  make  their  absence  in  others  felt  as  a  short¬ 
coming,  and  to  make  their  possession  in  an  exceptional 


264  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

degree  appreciated  as  an  attribute  of  superior  merit. 
The  traits  of  predatory  man  are  by  no  means  obsolete 
in  the  common  run  of  modern  populations.  They  are 
present  and  can  be  called  out  in  bold  relief  at  any  time 
by  any  appeal  to  the  sentiments  in  which  they  express 
themselves, — unless  this  appeal  should  clash  with  the 
specific  activities  that  make  up  our  habitual  occupations 
and  comprise  the  general  range  of  our  everyday  interests. 
The  common  run  of  the  population  of  any  industrial 
community  is  emancipated  from  these,  economically 
considered,  untoward  propensities  only  in  the  sense 
that,  through  partial  and  temporary  disuse,  they  have 
lapsed  into  the  background  of  sub-conscious  motives. 
With  varying  degrees  of  potency  in  different  individuals, 
they  remain  available  for  the  aggressive  shaping  of 
men’s  actions  and  sentiments  whenever  a  stimulus  of 
more  than  everyday  intensity  comes  in  to  call  them 
forth.  And  they  assert  themselves  forcibly  in  any  case 
where  no  occupation  alien  to  the  predatory  culture  has 
usurped  the  individual’s  everyday  range  of  interest  and 
sentiment.  This  is  the  case  among  the  leisure  class 
and  among  certain  portions  of  the  population  which  are 
ancillary  to  that  class.  Hence  the  facility  with  which 
any  new  accessions  to  the  leisure  class  take  to  sports  ; 
and  hence  the  rapid  growth  of  sports  and  of  the  sport¬ 
ing  sentiment  in  any  industrial  community  where  wealth 
has  accumulated  sufficiently  to  exempt  a  considerable 
part  of  the  population  from  work. 

A  homely  and  familiar  fact  may  serve  to  show  that 
the  predaceous  impulse  does  not  prevail  in  the  same 
degree  in  all  classes.  Taken  simply  as  a  feature  of 


Modern  Survivals  of  Prozvcss  265 

modern  life,  the  habit  of  carrying  a  walking-stick  may 
seem  at  best  a  trivial  detail ;  but  the  usage  has  a  sig¬ 
nificance  for  the  point  in  question.  The  classes  among 
whom  the  habit  most  prevails  —  the  classes  with  whom 
the  walking-stick  is  associated  in  popular  apprehen¬ 
sion —  are  the  men  of  the  leisure  class  proper,  sporting 
men,  and  the  lower-class  delinquents.  To  these  might 
perhaps  be  added  the  men  engaged  in  the  pecuniary 
employments.  The  same  is  not  true  of  the  common 
run  of  men  engaged  in  industry ;  and  it  may  be  noted 
by  the  way  that  women  do  not  carry  a  stick  except  in 
case  of  infirmity,  where  it  has  a  use  of  a  different  kind. 
The  practice  is  of  course  in  great  measure  a  matter  of 
polite  usage ;  but  the  basis  of  polite  usage  is,  in  turn, 
the  proclivities  of  the  class  which  sets  the  pace  in  polite 
usage.  The  walking-stick  serves  the  purpose  of  an 
advertisement  that  the  bearer’s  hands  are  employed 
otherwise  than  in  useful  effort,  and  it  therefore  has 
utility  as  an  evidence  of  leisure.  But  it  is  also  a 
weapon,  and  it  meets  a  felt  need  of  barbarian  man  on 
that  ground.  The  handling  of  so  tangible  and  primi¬ 
tive  a  means  of  offence  is  very  comforting  to  any  one 
who  is  gifted  with  even  a  moderate  share  of  ferocity. 

The  exigencies  of  the  language  make  it  impossible  to 
avoid  an  apparent  implication  of  disapproval  of  the 
aptitudes,  propensities,  and  expressions  of  life  here  under 
discussion.  It  is,  however,  not  intended  to  imply  any¬ 
thing  in  the  way  of  deprecation  or  commendation  of 
any  one  of  these  phases  of  human  character  or  of  the 
life  process.  The  various  elements  of  the  prevalent, 
human  nature  are  taken  up  from  the  point  of  view  of 


266  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

economic  theory,  and  the  traits  discussed  are  gauged 
and  graded  with  regard  to  their  immediate  economic 
bearing  on  the  facility  of  the  collective  life  process. 
That  is  to  say,  these  phenomena  are  here  apprehended 
from  the  economic  point  of  view  and  are  valued  with 
respect  to  their  direct  action  in  furtherance  or  hin¬ 
drance  of  a  more  perfect  adjustment  of  the  human  col¬ 
lectivity  to  the  environment  and  to  the  institutional 
structure  required  by  the  economic  situation  of  the  col¬ 
lectivity  for  the  present  and  for  the  immediate  future. 
For  these  purposes  the  traits  handed  down  from  the 
predatory  culture  are  less  serviceable  than  might  be. 
Although  even  in  this  connection  it  is  not  to  be  over¬ 
looked  that  the  energetic  aggressiveness  and  pertinacity 
of  predatory  man  is  a  heritage  of  no  mean  value.  The 
economic  value  —  with  some  regard  also  to  the  social 
value  in  the  narrower  sense  —  of  these  aptitudes  and 
propensities  is  attempted  to  be  passed  upon  without 
reflecting  on  their  value  as  seen  from  another  point  of 
view.  When  contrasted  with  the  prosy  mediocrity  of 
the  latter-day  industrial  scheme  of  life,  and  judged  by 
the  accredited  standards  of  morality,  and  more  espe¬ 
cially  by  the  standards  of  aesthetics  and  of  poetry,  these 
survivals  from  a  more  primitive  type  of  manhood  may 
have  a  very  different  value  from  that  here  assigned 
them.  But  all  this  being  foreign  to  the  purpose  in 
hand,  no  expression  of  opinion  on  this  latter  head  would 
be  in  place  here.  All  that  is  admissible  is  to  enter  the 
caution  that  these  standards  of  excellence,  which  are 
alien  to  the  present  purpose,  must  not  be  allowed  to 
influence  our  economic  appreciation  of  these  traits  of 


Modern  Survivals  of  Prowess  267 

human  character  or  of  the  activities  which  foster  their 
growth.  This  applies  both  as  regards  those  persons 
who  actively  participate  in  sports  and  those  whose 
sporting  experience  consists  in  contemplation  only. 
What  is  here  said  of  the  sporting  propensity  is  likewise 
pertinent  to  sundry  reflections  presently  to  be  made  in 
this  connection  on  what  would  colloquially  be  known  as 
the  religious  life. 

The  last  paragraph  incidentally  touches  upon  the  fact 
that  everyday  speech  can  scarcely  be  employed  in  dis¬ 
cussing  this  class  of  aptitudes  and  activities  without 
implying  deprecation  or  apology.  The  fact  is  signifi¬ 
cant  as  showing  the  habitual  attitude  of  the  dispassion¬ 
ate  common  man  toward  the  propensities  which  express 
themselves  in  sports  and  in  exploit  generally.  And  this 
is  perhaps  as  convenient  a  place  as  any  to  discuss  that 
undertone  of  deprecation  which  runs  through  all  the 
voluminous  discourse  in  defence  or  in  laudation  of  ath¬ 
letic  sports,  as  well  as  of  other  activities  of  a  predomi¬ 
nantly  predatory  character.  The  same  apologetic  frame 
of  mind  is  at  least  beginning  to  be  observable  in  the 
spokesmen  of  most  other  institutions  handed  down 
from  the  barbarian  phase  of  life.  Among  these  archaic 
institutions  which  are  felt  to  need  apology  are  comprised, 
with  others,  the  entire  existing  system  of  the  distribu¬ 
tion  of  wealth,  together  with  the  resulting  class  distinc¬ 
tions  of  status  ;  all  or  nearly  all  forms  of  consumption 
that  come  under  the  head  of  conspicuous  waste ;  the 
status  of  women  under  the  patriarchal  system ;  and 
many  features  of  the  traditional  creeds  and  devout  ob¬ 
servances,  especially  the  exoteric  expressions  of  the 


268  The  Theory  of  the  Leism'e  Class 

creed  and  the  naive  apprehension  of  received  observ¬ 
ances.  What  is  to  be  said  in  this  connection  of  the 
apologetic  attitude  taken  in  commending  sports  and 
the  sporting  character  will  therefore  apply,  with  a  suit¬ 
able  change  in  phraseology,  to  the  apologies  offered 
in  behalf  of  these  other,  related  elements  of  our  social 
heritage. 

There  is  a  feeling  —  usually  vague  and  not  commonly 
avowed  in  so  many  words  by  the  apologist  himself,  but 
ordinarily  perceptible  in  the  manner  of  his  discourse  — 
that  these  sports,  as  well  as  the  general  range  of  pre¬ 
daceous  impulses  and  habits  of  thought  which  under¬ 
lie  the  sporting  character,  do  not  altogether  commend 
themselves  to  common  sense.  “As  to  the  majority  of 
murderers,  they  are  very  incorrect  characters.”  This 
aphorism  offers  a  valuation  of  the  predaceous  tempera¬ 
ment,  and  of  the  disciplinary  effects  of  its  overt  expres¬ 
sion  and  exercise,  as  seen  from  the  moralist’s  point  of 
view.  As  such  it  affords  an  indication  of  what  is  the 
deliverance  of  the  sober  sense  of  mature  men  as  to  the 
degree  of  availability  of  the  predatory  habit  of  mind  for 
the  purposes  of  the  collective  life.  It  is  felt  that  the 
presumption  is  against  any  activity  which  involves  habit¬ 
uation  to  the  predatory  attitude,  and  that  the  burden  of 
proof  lies  with  those  who  speak  for  the  rehabilitation  of 
the  predaceous  temper  and  for  the  practices  which 
strengthen  it.  There  is  a  strong  body  of  popular  senti¬ 
ment  in  favour  of  diversions  and  enterprise  of  the  kind 
in  question  ;  but  there  is  at  the  same  time  present  in 
the  community  a  pervading  sense  that  this  ground  of 
sentiment  wants  legitimation.  The  required  legitima- 


Modern  Survivals  of  Prowess  269 

tion  is  ordinarily  sought  by  showing  that  although 
sports  are  substantially  of  a  predatory,  socially  disin¬ 
tegrating  effect ;  although  their  proximate  effect  runs  in 
the  direction  of  reversion  to  propensities  that  are  indus¬ 
trially  disserviceable  ;  yet  indirectly  and  remotely  —  by 
some  not  readily  comprehensible  process  of  polar  induc¬ 
tion,  or  counter-irritation  perhaps  —  sports  are  conceived 
to  foster  a  habit  of  mind  that  is  serviceable  for  the  social 
or  industrial  purpose.  That  is  to  say,  although  sports 
are  essentially  of  the  nature  of  invidious  exploit,  it  is 
presumed  that  by  some  remote  and  obscure  effect  they 
result  in  the  growth  of  a  temperament  conducive  to  non- 
invidious  work.  It  is  commonly  attempted  to  show  all 
this  empirically ;  or  it  is  rather  assumed  that  this  is  the 
empirical  generalisation  which  must  be  obvious  to  any 
one  who  cares  to  see  it.  In  conducting  the  proof  of 
this  thesis  the  treacherous  ground  of  inference  from 
cause  to  effect  is  somewhat  shrewdly  avoided,  except  so 
far  as  to  show  that  the  “manly  virtues”  spoken  of  above 
are  fostered  by  sports.  But  since  it  is  these  manly  vir¬ 
tues  that  are  (economically)  in  need  of  legitimation,  the 
chain  of  proof  breaks  off  where  it  should  begin.  In  the 
most  general  economic  terms,  these  apologies  are  an 
effort  to  show  that,  in  spite  of  the  logic  of  the  thing, 
sports  do  in  fact  further  what  may  broadly  be  called 
workmanship.  So  long  as  he  has  not  succeeded  in  per¬ 
suading  himself  or  others  that  this  is  their  effect  the 
thoughtful  apologist  for  sports  will  not  rest  content ; 
and  commonly,  it  is  to  be  admitted,  he  does  not  rest 
content.  His  discontent  with  his  own  vindication  of 
the  practices  in  question  is  ordinarily  shown  by  his 


270  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

truculent  tone  and  by  the  eagerness  with  which  he 
heaps  up  asseverations  in  support  of  his  position. 

But  why  are  apologies  needed  ?  If  there  prevails  a 
body  of  popular  sentiment  in  favour  of  sports,  why  is  not 
that  fact  a  sufficient  legitimation  ?  The  protracted  dis*- 
cipline  of  prowess  to  which  the  race  has  been  subjected 
under  the  predatory  and  quasi-peaceable  culture  has 
transmitted  to  the  men  of  to-day  a  temperament  that 
finds  gratification  in  these  expressions  of  ferocity  and 
cunning.  So,  why  not  accept  these  sports  as  legitimate 
expressions  of  a  normal  and  wholesome  human  nature? 
What  other  norm  is  there  that  is  to  be  lived  up  to  than 
that  given  in  the  aggregate  range  of  propensities  that 
express  themselves  in  the  sentiments  of  this  generation, 
including  the  hereditary  strain  of  prowess?  The  ulte¬ 
rior  norm  to  which  appeal  is  taken  is  the  instinct  of 
workmanship,  which  is  an  instinct  more  fundamental, 
of  more  ancient  prescription,  than  the  propensity  to 
predatory  emulation.  The  latter  is  but  a  special  devel¬ 
opment  of  the  instinct  of  workmanship,  a  variant,  rela¬ 
tively  late  and  ephemeral  in  spite  of  its  great  absolute 
antiquity.  The  emulative  predatory  impulse  —  or  the 
instinct  of  sportsmanship,  as  it  might  well  be  called  — 
is  essentially  unstable  in  comparison  with  the  primor¬ 
dial  instinct  of  workmanship  out  of  which  it  has  been 
developed  and  differentiated.  Tested  by  this  ulterior 
norm  of  life,  predatory  emulation,  and  therefore  the  life 
of  sport,  falls  short. 

The  manner  and  the  measure  in  which  the  institution 
of  a  leisure  class  conduces  to  the  conservation  of  sports 
and  invidious  exploit  can  of  course  not  be  succinctly 


Modern  Survivals  of  P wives s  271 

stated.  From  the  evidence  already  recited  it  appears 
that,  in  sentiment  and  inclinations,  the  leisure  class  is 
more  favourable  to  a  warlike  attitude  and  animus  than 
the  industrial  classes.  Something  similar  seems  to  be 
true  as  regards  sports.  But  it  is  chiefly  in  its  indirect 
effects,  through  the  canons  of  decorous  living,  that  the 
institution  has  its  influence  on  the  prevalent  sentiment 
with  respect  to  the  sporting  life.  This  indirect  effect 
goes  almost  unequivocally  in  the  direction  of  furthering 
a  survival  of  the  predatory  temperament  and  habits; 
and  this  is  true  even  with  respect  to  those  variants  of 
the  sporting  life  which  the  higher  leisure-class  code 
of  proprieties  proscribes;  as,  e.  g.,  prize  fighting,  cock 
fighting,  and  other  like  vulgar  expressions  of  the 
sporting  temper.  Whatever  the  latest  authenticated 
schedule  of  detail  proprieties  may  say,  the  accredited 
canons  of  decency  sanctioned  by  the  institution  say 
without  equivocation  that  emulation  and  waste  are  good 
and  their  opposites  are  disreputable.  In  the  crepuscu¬ 
lar  light  of  the  social  nether  spaces  the  details  of  the 
code  are  not  apprehended  with  all  the  facility  that  might 
be  desired,  and  these  broad  underlying  canons  of  decency 
are  therefore  applied  somewhat  unreflectingly,  with  lit¬ 
tle  question  as  to  the  scope  of  their  competence  or  the 
exceptions  that  have  been  sanctioned  in  detail. 

Addiction  to  athletic  sports,  not  only  in  the  way  of 
direct  participation,  but  also  in  the  way  of  sentiment 
and  moral  support  is,  in  a  more  or  less  pronounced 
degree,  a  characteristic  of  the  leisure  class;  and  it 
is  a  trait  which  that  class  shares  with  the  lower-class 
delinquents,  and  with  such  atavistic  elements  through- 


272  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

out  the  body  of  the  community  as  are  endowed  with  a 
dominant  predaceous  trend.  Few  individuals  among  the 
populations  of  Western  civilised  countries  are  so  far 
devoid  of  the  predaceous  instinct  as  to  find  no  diversion 
in  contemplating  athletic  sports  and  games,  but  with 
the  common  run  of  individuals  among  the  industrial 
classes  the  inclination  to  sports  does  not  assert  itself 
to  the  extent  of  constituting  what  may  fairly  be  called 
a  sporting  habit.  With  these  classes  sports  are  an  oc¬ 
casional  diversion  rather  than  a  serious  feature  of  life. 
This  common  body  of  the  people  can  therefore  not  be 
said  to  cultivate  the  sporting  propensity.  Although  it 
is  not  obsolete  in  the  average  of  them,  or  even  in  any 
appreciable  number  of  individuals,  yet  the  predilection 
for  sports  in  the  commonplace  industrial  classes  is  of 
the  nature  of  a  reminiscence,  more  or  less  diverting  as 
an  occasional  interest,  rather  than  a  vital  and  permanent 
interest  that  counts  as  a  dominant  factor  in  shaping  the 
organic  complex  of  habits  of  thought  into  which  it 
enters. 

As  it  manifests  itself  in  the  sporting  life  of  to-day, 
this  propensity  may  not  appear  to  be  an  economic  factor 
of  grave  consequence.  Taken  simply  by  itself  it  does 
not  count  for  a  great  deal  in  its  direct  effects  on  the 
industrial  efficiency  or  the  consumption  of  any  given 
individual ;  but  the  prevalence  and  the  growth  of  the 
type  of  human  nature  of  which  this  propensity  is  a  char¬ 
acteristic  feature  is  a  matter  of  some  consequence.  It 
affects  the  economic  life  of  the  collectivity  both  as 
regards  the  rate  of  economic  development  and  as  re¬ 
gards  the  character  of  the  results  attained  by  the  devel- 


Modern  Survivals  of  P rozves s  273 

opment.  For  better  or  worse,  the  fact  that  the  popular 
habits  of  thought  are  in  any  degree  dominated  by  this 
type  of  character  can  not  but  greatly  affect  the  scope, 
direction,  standards,  and  ideals  of  the  collective  economic 
life,  as  well  as  the  degree  of  adjustment  of  the  collective 
life  to  the  environment. 

Something  to  a  like  effect  is  to  be  said  of  other  traits 
that  go  to  make  up  the  barbarian  character.  For  the 
purposes  of  economic  theory^  these  further  barbarian 
traits  may  be  taken  as  concomitant  variations  of  that 
predaceous  temper  of  which  prowess  is  an  expression. 
In  great  measure  they  are  not  primarily  of  an  economic 
character,  nor  do  they  have  much  direct  economic  bear¬ 
ing.  They  serve  to  indicate  the  stage  of  economic 
evolution  to  which  the  individual  possessed  of  them  is 
adapted.  They  are  of  importance,  therefore,  as  extra¬ 
neous  tests  of  the  degree  of  adaptation  of  the  character 
in  which  they  are  comprised  to  the  economic  exigencies 
of  to-day;  but  they  are  also  to  some  extent  important 
as  being  aptitudes  which  themselves  go  to  increase  or 
diminish  the  economic  serviceability  of  the  individual. 

As  it  finds  expression  in  the  life  of  the  barbarian, 
prowess  manifests  itself  in  two  main  directions,  —  force 
and  fraud.  In  varying  degrees  these  two  forms  of  ex¬ 
pression  are  similarly  present  in  modern  warfare,  in  the 
pecuniary  occupations,  and  in  sports  and  games.  Both 
lines  of  aptitudes  are  cultivated  and  strengthened  by 
the  life  of  sport  as  well  as  by  the  more  serious  forms 
of  emulative  life.  Strategy  or  cunning  is  an  element 
invariably  present  in  games,  as  also  in  warlike  pursuits 
and  in  the  chase.  In  all  of  these  employments  strategy 


274  77^  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

tends  to  develop  into  finesse,  and  chicane.  Chicane, 
falsehood,  brow-beating,  hold  a  well-secured  place  in 
the  method  of  procedure  of  any  athletic  contest  and  in 
games  generally.  The  habitual  employment  of  an  um¬ 
pire,  and  the  minute  technical  regulations  governing  the 
limits  and  details  of  permissible  fraud  and  strategic 
advantage,  sufficiently  attest  the  fact  that  fraudulent 
practices  and  attempts  to  overreach  one’s  opponents 
are  not  adventitious  tenures  of  the  game.  In  the 
nature  of  the  case  habituation  to  sports  should  conduce 
to  a  fuller  development  of  the  aptitude  for  fraud  ;  and 
the  prevalence  in  the  community  of  that  predatory 
temperament  which  inclines  men  to  sports  connotes  a 
prevalence  of  sharp  practice  and  callous  disregard  of 
the  interests  of  others,  individually  and  collectively. 
Resort  to  fraud,  in  any  guise  and  under  any  legiti¬ 
mation  of  law  or  custom,  is  an  expression  of  a  narrowly 
self-regarding  habit  of  mind.  It  is  needless  to  dwell  at 
any  length  on  the  economic  value  of  this  feature  of  the 
sporting  character. 

In  this  connection  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  most 
obvious  characteristic  of  the  physiognomy  affected  by 
athletic  and  other  sporting  men  is  that  of  an  extreme 
astuteness.  The  gifts  and  exploits  of  Ulysses  are 
scarcely  second  to  those  of  Achilles,  either  in  their 
substantial  furtherance  of  the  game  or  in  the  eclat 
which  they  give  the  astute  sporting  man  among  his 
associates.  The  pantomime  of  astuteness  is  commonly 
the  first  step  in  that  assimilation  to  the  professional 
sporting  man  which  a  youth  undergoes  after  matricu¬ 
lation  in  any  reputable  school,  of  the  secondary  or  the 


Modern  Survivals  of  Prowess 


275 


higher  education,  as  the  case  may  be.  And  the  physi¬ 
ognomy  of  astuteness,  as  a  decorative  feature,  never 
ceases  to  receive  the  thoughtful  attention  of  men  whose 
serious  interest  lies  in  athletic  games,  races,  or  other 
contests  of  a  similar  emulative  nature.  As  a  further 
indication  of  their  spiritual  kinship,  it  may  be  pointed 
out  that  the  members  of  the  lower  delinquent  class 
usually  show  this  physiognomy  of  astuteness  in  a 
marked  degree,  and  that  t hey/e ry  commonly  show  the 
same  histrionic  exaggeration  of  it  that  is  often  seen  in 
the  young  candidate  for  athletic  honours.  This,  by 
the  way,  is  the  most  legible  mark  of  what  is  vulgarly 
called  “  toughness  ”  in  youthful  aspirants  for  a  bad  name. 

The  astute  man,  it  may  be  remarked,  is  of  no  eco¬ 
nomic  value  to  the  community —  unless  it  be  for  the 
purpose  of  sharp  practice  in  dealings  with  other  com¬ 
munities.  His  functioning  is  not  a  furtherance  of  the 
generic  life  process.  At  its  best,  in  its  direct  economic 
bearing,  it  is  a  conversion  of  the  economic  substance 
of  the  collectivity  to  a  growth  alien  to  the  collective 
life  process  —  very  much  after  the  analogy  of  what  in 
medicine  would  be  called  a  benign  tumor,  with  some 
tendency  to  transgress  the  uncertain  line  that  divides 
the  benign  from  the  malign  growths. 

The  two  barbarian  traits,  ferocity  and  astuteness,  go 
to  make  up  the  predaceous  temper  or  spiritual  attitude. 
They  are  the  expressions  of  a  narrowly  self-regarding 
habit  of  mind.  Both  are  highly  serviceable  for  indi¬ 
vidual  expediency  in  a  life  looking  to  invidious  success. 
Both  also  have  a  high  aesthetic  value.  Both  are  fostered 
by  the  pecuniary  culture.  But  both  alike  are  of  no  use 
for  the  purposes  of  the  collective  life. 


CHAPTER  XI 


The  Belief  in  Luck 

# 

The  gambling  propensity  is  another  subsidiary  trait 
of  the  barbarian  temperament.  It  is  a  concomitant 
variation  of  character  of  almost  universal  prevalence 
among  sporting  men  and  among  men  given  to  warlike 
and  emulative  activities  generally.  This  trait  also  has 
a  direct  economic  value.  It  is  recognised  to  be  a 
hindrance  to  the  highest  industrial  efficiency  of  the 
aggregate  in  any  community  where  it  prevails  in  an 
appreciable  degree. 

The  gambling  proclivity  is  doubtfully  to  be  classed 
as  a  feature  belonging  exclusively  to  the  predatory  type 
of  human  nature.  The  chief  factor  in  the  gambling 
habit  is  the  belief  in  luck  ;  and  this  belief  is  apparently 
traceable,  at  least  in  its  elements,  to  a  stage  in  human 
evolution  antedating  the  predatory  culture.  It  may  well 
have  been  under  the  predatory  culture  that  the  belief  in 
luck  was  developed  into  the  form  in  which  it  is  present, 
as  the  chief  element  of  the  gambling  proclivity,  in  the 
sporting  temperament.  It  probably  owes  the  specific 
form  under  which  it  occurs  in  the  modern  culture  to 
the  predatory  discipline.  But  the  belief  in  luck  is  in 
substance  a  habit  of  more  ancient  date  than  the  preda¬ 
tory  culture.  It  is  one  form  of  the  animistic  apprehen- 

276 


The  Belief  in  Luck 


2  77 


sion  of  things.  The  belief  seems  to  be  a  trait  carried 
over  in  substance  from  an  earlier  phase  into  the  barba¬ 
rian  culture,  and  transmuted  and  transmitted  through 
that  culture  to  a  later  stage  of  human 'development 
under  a  specific  form  imposed  by  the  predatory  disci¬ 
pline.  But  in  any  case  it  is  to  be  taken  as  an  archaic 
trait,  inherited  from  a  more  or  less  remote  past,  more 
or  less  incompatible  with  the -requirements  of  the  mod¬ 
ern  industrial  process,  and  mWe  or  less  of  a  hindrance 
to  the  fullest  efficiency  of  the  collective  economic  life 
of  the  present. 

While  the  belief  in  luck  is  the  basis  of  the  gambling 
habit,  it  is  not  the  only  element  that  enters  into  the 
habit  of  betting.  Betting  on  the  issue  of  contests  of 
strength  and  skill  proceeds  on  a  further  motive,  without 
which  the  belief  in  luck  would  scarcely  come  in  as  a 
prominent  feature  of  sporting  life.  This  further  motive 
is  the  desire  of  the  anticipated  winner,  or  the  partisan 
of  the  anticipated  winning  side,  to  heighten  his  side’s 
ascendency  at  the  cost  of  the  loser.  Not  only  does  the 
stronger  side  score  a  more  signal  victory,  and  the  losing 
side  suffer  a  more  painful  and  humiliating  defeat,  in 
proportion  as  the  pecuniary  gain  and  loss  in  the  wager 
is  large  ;  although  this  alone  is  a  consideration  of  mate¬ 
rial  weight.  But  the  wager  is  commonly  laid  also  with 
a  view,  not  avowed  in  words  nor  even  recognised  in  set 
terms  in  petto,  to  enhancing  the  chances  of  success  for 
the  contestant  on  which  it  is  laid.  It  is  felt  that  sub¬ 
stance  and  solicitude  expended  to  this  end  can  not  go 
for  naught  in  the  issue.  There  is  here  a  special  mani¬ 
festation  of  the  instinct  of  workmanship,  backed  by  an 


278  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

even  more  manifest  sense  that  the  animistic  congruity 
of  things  must  decide  for  a  victorious  outcome  for  the 
side  in  whose  behalf  the  propensity  inherent  in  events 
has  been  propitiated  and  fortified  by  so  much  of  cona¬ 
tive  and  kinetic  urging.  This  incentive  to  the  wager 
expresses  itself  freely  under  the  form  of  backing  one’s 
favourite  in  any  contest,  and  it  is  'unmistakably  a 
predatory  feature.  It  is^^  ancillary  to  the  predaceous 
impulse  proper  that  theWelief  in  luck  expresses  itself 
in  a  wager.  So  that  it  may  be  set  down  that  in  so  far 
as  the  belief  in  luck  comes  to  expression  in  the  form  of 
laying  a  wager,  it  is  to  be  accounted  an  integral  element 
of  the  predatory  type  of  character.  The  belief  is,  in  its 
elements,  an  archaic  habit  which  belongs  substantially 
to  early,  undifferentiated  human  nature  ;  but  when  this 
belief  is  helped  out  by  the  predatory  emulative  impulse, 
and  so  is  differentiated  into  the  specific  form  of  the 
gambling  habit,  it  is,  in  this  higher  developed  and 
specific  form,  to  be  classed  as  a  trait  of  the  barbarian 
character. 

The  belief  in  luck  is  a  sense  of  fortuitous  necessity 
in  the  sequence  of  phenomena.  In  its  various  muta¬ 
tions  and  expressions,  it  is  of  very  serious  importance 
for  the  economic  efficiency  of  any  community  in  which 
it  prevails  to  an  appreciable  extent.  So  much  so  as 
to  warrant  a  more  detailed  discussion  of  its  origin 
and  content  and  of  the  bearing  of  its  various  ramifica¬ 
tions  upon  economic  structure  and  function,  as  well 
as  a  discussion  of  the  relation  of  the  leisure  class  to 
its  growth,  differentiation,  and  persistence.  In  the 
developed,  integrated  form  in  which  it  is  most  readily 


The  Belief  in  Luck 


279 


observed  in  the  barbarian  of  the  predatory  culture  or 
in  the  sporting  man  of  modern  communities,  the  belief 
comprises  at  least  two  distinguishable  elements,  — 
which  are  to  be  taken  as  two  different  phases  of  the 
same  fundamental  habit  of  thought,  or  as  the  same 
psychological  factor  in  two  successive  phases  of  its 
evolution.  The  fact  that  these  two  elements  are  suc¬ 
cessive  phases  of  the  same  general  line  of  growth  of 
belief  does  not  hinder  their  coexisting  in  the  habits 
of  thought  of  any  given  individual.  The  more  primi¬ 
tive  form  (or  the  more  archaic  phase)  is  an  incipient 
animistic  belief,  or  an  animistic  sense  of  relations  and 
things,  that  imputes  a  quasi-personal  character  to  facts. 
To  the  archaic  man  all  the  obtrusive  and  obviously 
consequential  objects  and  facts  in  his  environment 
have  a  quasi-personal  individuality.  They  are  con¬ 
ceived  to  be  possessed  of  volition,  or  rather  of  propen¬ 
sities,  which  enter  into  the  complex  of  causes  and 
affect  events  in  an  inscrutable  manner.  The  sporting 
man’s  sense  of  luck  and  chance,  or  of  fortuitous  neces¬ 
sity,  is  an  inarticulate  or  inchoate  animism.  It  applies 
to  objects  and  situations,  often  in  a  very  vague  way; 
but  it  is  usually  so  far  defined  as  to  imply  the  possi¬ 
bility  of  propitiating,  or  of  deceiving  and  cajoling,  or 
otherwise  disturbing  the  unfolding  of  propensities 
resident  in  the  objects  which  constitute  the  apparatus 
and  accessories  of  any  game  of  skill  or  chance.  There 
are  few  sporting  men  who  are  not  in  the  habit  of 
wearing  charms  or  talismans  to  which  more  or  less 
of  efficacy  is  felt  to  belong.  And  the  proportion  is 
not  much  less  of  those  who  instinctively  dread  the 


280  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

“hoodooing”  of  the  contestants  or  the  apparatus  en¬ 
gaged  in  any  contest  on  which  they  lay  a  wager ; 
or  who  feel  that  the  fact  of  their  backing  a  given 
contestant  or  side  in  the  game  does  and  ought  to 
strengthen  that  side;  or  to  whom  the  “mascot”  which 
they  cultivate  means  something  more  than  a  jest. 

In  its  simple  form  the  belief  in  luck  is  this  instinc¬ 
tive  sense  of  an  inscrutable  teleological  propensity  in 
objects  or  situations.  Objects  or  events  have  a  pro¬ 
pensity  to  eventuate  in  a  given  end,  whether  this  end  or 
objective  point  of  the  sequence  is  conceived  to  be  fortui¬ 
tously  given  or  deliberately  sought.  From  this  simple 
animism  the  belief  shades  off  by  insensible  grada¬ 
tions  into  the  second,  derivative  form  or  phase  above 
referred  to,  which  is  a  more  or  less  articulate  belief  in 
an  inscrutable  preternatural  agency.  The  preternat¬ 
ural  agency  works  through  the  visible  objects  with 
which  it  is  associated,  but  is  not  identified  with  these 
objects  in  point  of  individuality.  The  use  of  the  term 
“preternatural  agency”  here  carries  no  further  impli¬ 
cation  as  to  the  nature  of  the  agency  spoken  of  as 
preternatural.  This  is  only  a  farther  development  of 
animistic  belief.  The  preternatural  agency  is  not 
necessarily  conceived  to  be  a  personal  agent  in  the 
full  sense,  but  it  is  an  agency  which  partakes  of  the 
attributes  of  personality  to  the  extent  of  somewhat 
arbitrarily  influencing  the  outcome  of  any  enterprise, 
and  especially  of  any  contest.  The  pervading  belief 
in  the  hamingia  or  gipta  ( gaefa ,  ail'd na)  which  lends  so 
much  of  colour  to  the  Icelandic  sagas  specifically,  and 
to  early  Germanic  folk-legends  generally,  is  an  illustra- 


The  Belief  in  Luck 


281 


tion  of  this  sense  of  an  extra-physical  propensity  in 
the  course  of  events. 

In  this  expression  or  form  of  the  belief  the  pro¬ 
pensity  is  scarcely  personified,  although  to  a  varying 
extent  an  individuality  is  imputed  to  it  ;  and  this  indi¬ 
viduated  propensity  is  sometimes  conceived  to  yield  to 
circumstances,  commonly  to  circumstances  of  a  spirit¬ 
ual  or  preternatural  character.  A  well-known  and 
striking  exemplification  of  the  belief  —  in  a  fairly  ad¬ 
vanced  stage  of  differentiation  and  involving  an  anthro¬ 
pomorphic  personification  of  the  preternatural  agent 
appealed  to  —  is  afforded  by  the  wager  of  battle.  Here 
the  preternatural  agent  was  conceived  to  act  on  request 
as  umpire,  and  to  shape  the  outcome  of  the  contest 
in  accordance  with  some  stipulated  ground  of  decision, 
such  as  the  equity  or  legality  of  the  respective  con¬ 
testants’  claims.  The  like  sense  of  an  inscrutable  but 
spiritually  necessary  tendency  in  events  is  still  trace¬ 
able  as  an  obscure  element  in  current  popular  belief, 
as  shown,  for  instance,  by  the  well-accredited  maxim, 
“Thrice  is  he  armed  who  knows  his  quarrel  just,”  — 
a  maxim  which  retains  much  of  its  significance  for  the 
average  unreflecting  person  even  in  the  civilised  com¬ 
munities  of  to-day.  The  modern  reminiscence  of  the 
belief  in  the  hamingia ,  or  in  the  guidance  of  an  unseen 
hand,  which  is  traceable  in  the  acceptance  of  this 
maxim  is  faint  and  perhaps  uncertain  ;  and  it  seems 
in  any  case  to  be  blended  with  other  psychological  mo¬ 
ments  that  are  not  clearly  of  an  animistic  character. 

For  the  purpose  in  hand  it  is  unnecessary  to  look 
more  closely  into  the  psychological  process  or  the  eth- 


282  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

nological  line  of  descent  by  which  the  later  of  these  two 
animistic  apprehensions  of  propensity  is  derived  from 
the  earlier.  This  question  may  be  of  the  gravest 
importance  to  folk-psychology  or  to  the  theory  of  the 
evolution  of  creeds  and  cults.  The  same  is  true  of  the 
more  fundamental  question  whether  the  two  are  related 
at  all  as  successive  phases  in  a  sequence  of  development. 
Reference  is  here  made  to  the  existence  of  these  ques¬ 
tions  only  to  remark  that  the  interest  of  the  present 
discussion  does  not  lie  in  that  direction.  So  far  as  con¬ 
cerns  economic  theory,  these  two  elements  or  phases  of 
the  belief  in  luck,  or  in  an  extra-causal  trend  or  propen¬ 
sity  in  things,  are  of  substantially  the  same  character. 
They  have  an  economic  significance  as  habits  of  thought 
which  affect  the  individual’s  habitual  view  of  the  facts 
and  sequences  with  which  he  comes  in  contact,  and 
which  thereby  affect  the  individual’s  serviceability  for 
the  industrial  purpose.  Therefore,  apart  from  all  ques¬ 
tion  of  the  beauty,  worth,  or  beneficence  of  any  animistic 
belief,  there  is  place  for  a  discussion  of  their  economic 
bearing  on  the  serviceability  of  the  individual  as  an 
economic  factor,  and  especially  as  an  industrial  agent. 

It  has  already  been  noted  in  an  earlier  connection, 
that  in  order  to  the  highest  serviceability  in  the  com¬ 
plex  industrial  processes  of  to-day,  the  individual  must 
be  endowed  with  the  aptitude  and  the  habit  of  readily 
apprehending  and  relating  facts  in  terms  of  causal 
sequence.  Both  as  a  whole  and  in  its  details,  the  in¬ 
dustrial  process  is  a  process  of  quantitative  causation. 
The  “intelligence”  demanded  of  the  workman,  as  well  as 
of  the  director  of  an  industrial  process,  is  little  else  than 


283 


The  Belief  in  Luck 


a  degree  of  facility  in  the  apprehension  of  and  adapta¬ 
tion  to  a  quantitatively  determined  causal  sequence. 
This  facility  of  apprehension  and  adaptation  is  what 
is  lacking  in  stupid  workmen,  and  the  growth  of  this 
facility  is  the  end  sought  in  their  education  —  so  far 
as  their  education  aims  to  enhance  their  industrial 
efficiency. 

In  so  far  as  the  individual’s  inherited  aptitudes  or  his 
training  incline  him  to  account  for  facts  and  sequences 
in  other  terms  than  those  of  causation  or  matter-of-fact, 
they  lower  his  productive  efficiency  or  industrial  useful¬ 
ness.  This  lowering  of  efficiency  through  a  penchant 
for  animistic  methods  of  apprehending  facts  is  especially 
apparent  when  taken  in  the  mass  —  when  a  given  popu¬ 
lation  with  an  animistic  turn  is  viewed  as  a  whole. 
The  economic  drawbacks  of  animism  are  more  patent 
and  its  consequences  are  more  far-reaching  under  the 
modern  system  of  large  industry  than  under  any  other. 
In  the  modern  industrial  communities,  industry  is,  to  a 
constantly  increasing  extent,  being  organised  in  a  com¬ 
prehensive  system  of  organs  and  functions  mutually 
conditioning  one  another ;  and  therefore  freedom  from 
all  bias  in  the  causal  apprehension  of  phenomena  grows 
constantly  more  requisite  to  efficiency  on  the  part  of 
the  men  concerned  in  industry.  Under  a  system  of 
handicraft  an  advantage  in  dexterity,  diligence,  muscu¬ 
lar  force,  or  endurance  may,  in  a  very  large  measure, 
offset  such  a  bias  in  the  habits  of  thought  of  the  work¬ 
men. 

Similarly  in  agricultural  industry  of  the  traditional 
kind,  which  closely  resembles  handicraft  in  the  nature 


284  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

t 

of  the  demands  made  upon  the  workman.  In  both,  the 
workman  is  himself  the  prime  mover  chiefly  depended 
upon,  and  the  natural  forces  engaged  are  in  large  part 
apprehended  as  inscrutable  and  fortuitous  agencies, 
whose  working  lies  beyond  the  workman’s  control  or 
discretion.  In  popular  apprehension  there  is  in  these 
forms  of  industry  relatively  little  of  the  industrial  pro¬ 
cess  left  to  the  fateful  swing  of  a  comprehensive  me¬ 
chanical  sequence  which  must  be  comprehended  in  terms 
of  causation  and  to  which  the  operations  of ^industry  and 
the  movements  of  the  workmen  must  be  adapted.  As 
industrial  methods  develop,  the  virtues  of  the  handi¬ 
craftsman  count  for  less  and  less  as  an  offset  to  scanty 
intelligence  or  a  halting  acceptance  of  the  sequence  of 
cause  and  effect.  The  industrial  organisation  assumes 
more  and  more  of  the  character  of  a  mechanism,  in 
which  it  is  man’s  office  to  discriminate  and  select  what 
natural  forces  shall  work  out  their  effects  in  his  service. 
The  workman’s  part  in  industry  changes  from  that  of 
a  prime  mover  to  that  of  discrimination  and  valuation 
of  quantitative  sequences  and  mechanical  facts.  The 
faculty  of  a  ready  apprehension  and  unbiassed  appreci¬ 
ation  of  causes  in  his  environment  grows  in  relative 
economic  importance,  and  any  element  in  the  complex 
of  his  habits  of  thought  which  intrudes  a  bias  at  vari¬ 
ance  with  this  ready  appreciation  of  matter-of-fact 
sequence  gains  proportionately  in  importance  as  a  dis¬ 
turbing  element  acting  to  lower  his  industrial  useful¬ 
ness.  Through  its  cumulative  effect  upon  the  habitual 
attitude  of  the  population,  even  a  slight  or  inconspic¬ 
uous  bias  towards  accounting  for  everyday  facts  by 


The  Belief  in  Luck 


285 


recourse  to  other  ground  than  that  of  quantitative 
causation  may  work  an  appreciable  lowering  of  the 
collective  industrial  efficiency  of  a  community. 

The  animistic  habit  of  mind  may  occur  in  the  early, 
undifferentiated  form  of  an  inchoate  animistic  belief,  or 
in  the  later  and  more  highly  integrated  phase  in  which 
there  is  an  anthropomorphic  personification  of  the  pro¬ 
pensity  imputed  to  facts.  The  industrial  value  of  such 
a  lively  animistic  sense,  or  of  such  recourse  to  a  preter¬ 
natural  agency  or  the  guidance  of  an  unseen  hand,  is  of 
course  very  much  the  same  in  either  case.  As  affects 
the  industrial  serviceability  of  the  individual,  the  effect 
is  of  the  same  kind  in  either  case  ;  but  the  extent  to 
which  this  habit  of  thought  dominates  or  shapes  the 
complex  of  his  habits  of  thought  varies  with  the  degree 
of  immediacy,  urgency,  or  exclusiveness  with  which  the 
individual  habitually  applies  the  animistic  or  anthropo¬ 
morphic  formula  in  dealing  with  the  facts  of  his  environ¬ 
ment.  The  animistic  habit  acts  in  all  cases  to  blur  the 
appreciation  of  causal  sequence ;  but  the  earlier,  less 
reflected,  less  defined  animistic  sense  of  propensity  may 
be  expected  to  affect  the  intellectual  processes  of  the 
individual  in  a  more  pervasive  way  than  the  higher 
forms  of  anthropomorphism.  Where  the  animistic  habit 
is  present  in  the  naive  form,  its  scope  and  range  of 
application  are  not  defined  or  limited.  It  will  therefore 
palpably  affect  his  thinking  at  every  turn  of  the  per¬ 
son’s  life  —  wherever  he  has  to  do  with  the  material 
means  of  life.  In  the  later,  maturer  development  of 
animism,  after  it  has  been  defined  through  the  process 
of  anthropomorphic  elaboration,  when  its  application  has 


286  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

been  limited  in  a  somewhat  consistent  fashion  to  the 
remote  and  the  invisible,  it  comes  about  that  an  increas- 
ing  range  of  everyday  facts  are  provisionally  accounted 
for  without  recourse  to  the  preternatural  agency  in 
which  a  cultivated  animism  expresses  itself.  A  highly 
integrated,  personified  preternatural  agency  is  not  a  con¬ 
venient  means  of  handling  the  trivial  occurrences  of  life, 
and  a  habit  is  therefore  easily  fallen  into  of  accounting 
for  many  trivial  or  vulgar  phenomena  in  terms  of 
sequence.  The  provisional  explanation  so  arrived  at  is 
by  neglect  allowed  to  stand  as  definitive,  for  trivial  pur¬ 
poses,  until  special  provocation  or  perplexity  recalls  the 
individual  to  his  allegiance.  But  when  special  exigen¬ 
cies  arise,  that  is  to  say,  when  there  is  peculiar  need  of 
a  full  and  free  recourse  to  the  law  of  cause  and  effect, 
then  the  individual  commonly  has  recourse  to  the  pre¬ 
ternatural  agency  as  a  universal  solvent,  if  he  is  pos¬ 
sessed  of  anthropomorphic  belief. 

The  extra-causal  propensity  or  agent  has  a  very  high 
utility  as  a  recourse  in  perplexity,  but  its  utility  is  alto¬ 
gether  of  a  non-economic  kind.  It  is  especially  a  refuge 
and  a  fund  of  comfort  where  it  has  attained  the  degree 
of  consistency  and  specialisation  that  belongs  to  an  an¬ 
thropomorphic  divinity.  It  has  much  to  commend  it  even 
on  other  grounds  than  that  of  affording  the  perplexed 
individual  a  means  of  escape  from  the  difficulty  of 
accounting  for  phenomena  in  terms  of  causal  sequence. 
It  would  scarcely  be  in  place  here  to  dwell  on  the  obvi¬ 
ous  and  well-accepted  merits  of  an  anthropomorphic 
divinity,  as  seen  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  aesthetic, 
moral,  or  spiritual  interest,  or  even  as  seen  from  the 


The  Belief  in  Luck 


287 


less  remote  standpoint  of  political,  military,  or  social 
policy.  The  question  here  concerns  the  less  picturesque 
and  less  urgent  economic  value  of  the  belief  in  such  a 
preternatural  agency,  taken  as  a  habit  of  thought  which 
affects  the  industrial  serviceability  of  the  believer.  And 
even  within  this  narrow,  economic  range,  the  inquiry  is 
perforce  confined  to  the  immediate  bearing  of  this  habit 
of  thought  upon  the  believer’s  workmanlike  service¬ 
ability,  rather  than  extended  to  include  its  remoter  eco¬ 
nomic  effects.  These  remoter  effects  are  very  difficult 
to  trace.  The  inquiry  into  them  is  so  encumbered  with 
current  preconceptions  as  to  the  degree  in  which  life  is 
enhanced  by  spiritual  contact  with  such  a  divinity,  that 
any  attempt  to  inquire  into  their  economic  value  must 
for  the  present  be  fruitless. 

The  immediate,  direct  effect  of  the  animistic  habit  of 
thought  upon  the  general  frame  of  mind  of  the  believer 
goes  in  the  direction  of  lowering  his  effective  intelli¬ 
gence  in  the  respect  in  which  intelligence  is  of  especial 
consequence  for  modern  industry.  The  effect  follows, 
in  varying  degree,  whether  the  preternatural  agent  or 
propensity  believed  in  is  of  a  higher  or  a  lower  cast. 
This  holds  true  of  the  barbarian  and  the  sporting  man’s 
sense  of  luck  and  propensity,  and  likewise  of  the  some¬ 
what  higher  developed  belief  in  an  anthropomorphic 
divinity,  such  as  is  commonly  possessed  by  the  same 
class.  It  must  be  taken  to  hold  true  also  —  though 
with  what  relative  degree  of  cogency  is  not  easy  to  say 
—  of  the  more  adequately  developed  anthropomorphic 
cults,  such  as  appeal  to  the  devout  civilised  man.  The 
industrial  disability  entailed  by  a  popular  adherence  to 


288  The  Theory  of  the .  Leisure  Class 

one  of  the  higher  anthropomorphic  cults  may  be  rela¬ 
tively  slight,  but  it  is  not  to  be  overlooked.  And  even 
these  high-class  cults  of  the  Western  culture  do  not  rep¬ 
resent  the  last  dissolving  phase  of  this  human  sense  of 
extra-causal  propensity.  Beyond  these  the  same  ani¬ 
mistic  sense  shows  itself  also  in  such  attenuations  of 
anthropomorphism  as  the  eighteenth-century  appeal  to 
an  order  of  nature  and  natural  rights,  and  in  their  mod¬ 
ern  representative,  the  ostensibly  post-Darwinian  con¬ 
cept  of  a  meliorative  trend  in  the  process  of  evolution. 
This  animistic  explanation  of  phenomena  is  a  form  of 
the  fallacy  which  the  logicians  knew  by  the  name  of 
ignava  ratio.  For  the  purposes  of  industry  or  of  sci¬ 
ence  it  counts  as  a  blunder  in  the  apprehension  and 
valuation  of  facts. 

Apart  from  its  direct  industrial  consequences,  the 
animistic  habit  has  a  certain  significance  for  economic 
theory  on  other  grounds,  (i)  It  is  a  fairly  reliable  in¬ 
dication  of  the  presence,  and  to  some  extent  even  of  the 
degree  of  potency,  of  certain  other  archaic  traits  that 
accompany  it  and  that  are  of  substantial  economic  con¬ 
sequence  ;  and  (2)  the  material  consequences  of  that 
code  of  devout  proprieties  to  which  the  animistic  habit 
gives  rise  in  the  development  of  an  anthropomorphic 
cult  are  of  importance  both  (a)  as  affecting  the  com¬ 
munity’s  consumption  of  goods  and  the  prevalent  canons 
of  taste,  as  already  suggested  in  an  earlier  chapter,  and 
(h)  in  inducing  and  conserving  a  certain  habitual  recog¬ 
nition  of  the  relation  to  a  superior,  and  so  stiffening  the 
current  sense  of  status  and  allegiance. 

As  regards  the  point  last  named  (h),  that  body  of 


The  Belief  in  Luck 


289 


habits  of  thought  which  makes  up  the  character  of  any 
individual  is  in  some  sense  an  organic  whole.  A  marked 
variation  in  a  given  direction  at  any  one  point  carries 
with  it,  as  its  correlative,  a  concomitant  variation  in  the 
habitual  expression  of  life  in  other  directions  or  other 
groups  of  activities.  These  various  habits  of  thought, 
or  habitual  expressions  of  life,  are  all  phases  of  the 
single  life  sequence  of  the  individual ;  therefore  a  habit 
formed  in  response  to  a  given  stimulus  will  necessarily 
affect  the  character  of  the  response  made  to  other 
stimuli.  A  modification  of  human  nature  at  any  one 
point  is  a  modification  of  human  nature  as  a  whole.  On 
this  ground,  and  perhaps  to  a  still  greater  extent  on 
obscurer  grounds  that  can  not  be  discussed  here,  there 
are  these  concomitant  variations  as  between  the  differ¬ 
ent  traits  of  human  nature.  So,  for  instance,  barbarian 
peoples  with  a  well-developed  predatory  scheme  of  life 
are  commonly  also  possessed  of  a  strong  prevailing  ani¬ 
mistic  habit,  a  well-formed  anthropomorphic  cult,  and  a 
lively  sense  of  status.  On  the  other  hand,  anthropo¬ 
morphism  and  the  realising  sense  of  an  animistic  pro¬ 
pensity  in  material  things  are  less  obtrusively  present 
in  the  life  of  the  peoples  at  the  cultural  stages  which 
precede  and  which  follow  the  barbarian  culture.  The 
sense  of  status  is  also  feebler,  on  the  whole,  in  peace¬ 
able  communities.  It  is  to  be  remarked  that  a  lively, 
but  slightly  specialised,  animistic  belief  is  to  be  found 
in  most  if  not  all  peoples  living  in  the  ante-predatory, 
savage  stage  of  culture.  The  primitive  savage  takes 
his  animism  less  seriously  than  the  barbarian  or  the 
degenerate  savage.  With  him  it  eventuates  in  fantastic 


u 


290  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

*» 

myth-making,  rather  than  in  coercive  superstition.  The 
barbarian  culture  shows  sportsmanship,  status,  and  an¬ 
thropomorphism.  There  is  commonly  observable  a  like 
concomitance  of  variations  in  the  same  respects  in 
the  individual  temperament  of  men  in  the  civilised 
communities  of  to-day.  Those  modern  representatives 
of  the  predaceous  barbarian  temper  that  make  up  the 
sporting  element  are  commonly  believers  in  luck ;  at 
least  they  have  a  strong  sense  of  an  animistic  pro¬ 
pensity  in  things,  by  force  of  which  they  are  given  to 
gambling.  So  also  as  regards  anthropomorphism  in 
this  class.  Such  of  them  as  give  in  their  adhesion  to 
some  creed  commonly  attach  themselves  to  one  of  the 
nai'vely  and  consistently  anthropomorphic  creeds  ;  there 
are  relatively  few  sporting  men  who  seek  spiritual  com¬ 
fort  in  the  less  anthropomorphic  cults,  such  as  the 
Unitarian  or  the  Universalist. 

Closely  bound  up  with  this  correlation  of  anthropo¬ 
morphism  and  prowess  is  the  fact  that  anthropomorphic 
cults  act  to  conserve,  if  not  to  initiate,  habits  of  mind 
favourable  to  a  regime  of  status.  As  regards  this  point, 
it  is  quite  impossible  to  say  where  the  disciplinary  effect 
of  the  cult  ends  and  where  the  evidence  of  a  concomi¬ 
tance  of  variations  in  inherited  traits  begins.  In  their 
finest  development,  the  predatory  temperament,  the 
sense  of  status,  and  the  anthropomorphic  cult  all  to¬ 
gether  belong  to  the  barbarian  culture ;  and  something 
of  a  mutual  causal  relation  subsists  between  the  three 
phenomena  as  they  come  into  sight  in  communities  on 
that  cultural  level.  The  way  in  which  they  recur  in 
correlation  in  the  habits  and  aptitudes  of  individuals 


The  Belief  in  Luck 


291 


and  classes  to-day  goes  far  to  imply  a  like  causal  or 
organic  relation  between  the  same  psychological  phe¬ 
nomena  considered  as  traits  or  habits  of  the  individual. 
It  has  appeared  at  an  earlier  point  in  the  discussion 
that  the  relation  of  status,  as  a  feature  of  social  struct¬ 
ure,  is  a  consequence  of  the  predatory  habit  of  life. 
As  regards  its  line  of  derivation,  it  is  substantially  an 
elaborated  expression  of  the  predatory  attitude.  On 
the  other  hand,  an  anthropomorphic  cult  is  a  code  of 
detailed  relations  of  status  superimposed  upon  the  con¬ 
cept  of  a  preternatural,  inscrutable  propensity  in  mate¬ 
rial  things.  So  that,  as  regards  the  external  facts  of 
its  derivation,  the  cult  may  be  taken  as  an  outgrowth 
of  archaic  man’s  pervading  animistic  sense,  defined  and 
in  some  degree  transformed  by  the  predatory  habit  of 
life,  the  result  being  a  personified  preternatural  agency, 
which  is  by  imputation  endowed  with  a  full  complement 
of  the  habits  of  thought  that  characterise  the  man  of 
the  predatory  culture. 

The  grosser  psychological  features  in  the  case,  which 
have  an  immediate  bearing  on  economic  theory  and 
are  consequently  to  be  taken  account  of  here,  are 
therefore :  (a)  as  has  appeared  in  an  earlier  chapter, 
the  predatory,  emulative  habit  of  mind  here  called 
prowess  is  but  the  barbarian  variant  of  the  generically 
human  instinct  of  workmanship,  which  has  fallen  into 
this  specific  form  under  the  guidance  of  a  habit  of 
invidious  comparison  of  persons;  (IT)  the  relation  of 
status  is  a  formal  expression  of  such  an  invidious 

M. 

comparison  duly  gauged  and  graded  according  to  a 
sanctioned  schedule ;  ( c )  an  anthropomorphic  cult,  in 


292  The  •'Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

the  days  of  its  early  vigour  at  least,  is  an  institution  the 
characteristic  element  of  which  is  a  relation  of  status 
between  the  human  subject  as  inferior  and  the  personi¬ 
fied  preternatural  agency  as  superior.  With  this  in  mind, 
there  should  be  no  difficulty  in  recognising  the  intimate 
relation  which  subsists  between  these  three  phenomena 
of  human  nature  and  of  human  life ;  the  relation 
amounts  to  an  identity  in  some  of  their  substantial 
elements.  On  the  one  hand,  the  system  of  status  and 
the  predatory  habit  of  life  are  an  expression  of  the 
instinct  of  workmanship  as  it  takes  form  under  a 
custom  of  invidious  comparison  ;  on  the  other  hand, 
the  anthropomorphic  cult  and  the  habit  of  devout 
observances  are  an  expression  of  men’s  animistic  sense 
of  a  propensity  in  material  things,  elaborated  under  the 
guidance  of  substantially  the  same  general  habit  of 
invidious  comparison.  The  two  categories  —  the  emu¬ 
lative  habit  of  life  and  the  habit  of  devout  observances 
—  are  therefore  to  be  taken  as  complementary  elements 
of  the  barbarian  type  of  human  nature  and  of  its 
modern  barbarian  variants.  They  are  expressions  of 
much  the  same  range  of  aptitudes,  made  in  response  to 
different  sets  of  stimuli. 


CHAPTER  XII 


Devout  Observances 

A  discursive  rehearsal  of  certain  incidents  of  modern 
life  will  show  the  organic  relation  of  the  anthropomor¬ 
phic  cults  to  the  barbarian  culture  and  temperament. 
It  will  likewise  serve  to  show  how  the  survival  and 
efficacy  of  the  cults  and  the  prevalence  of  their  sched¬ 
ule  of  devout  observances  are  related  to  the  institution 
of  a  leisure  class  and  to  the  springs  of  action  underly¬ 
ing  that  institution.  Without  any  intention  to  com¬ 
mend  or  to  deprecate  the  practices  to  be  spoken  of 
under  the  head  of  devout  observances,  or  the  spiritual 
and  intellectual  traits  of  which  these  observances  are 
the  expression,  the  everyday  phenomena  of  current 
anthropomorphic  cults  may  be  taken  up  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  interest  which  they  have  for  economic 
theory.  What  can  properly  be  spoken  of  here  are  the 
tangible,  external  features  of  devout  observances.  The 
moral,  as  well  as  the  devotional,  value  of  the  life  of 
faith  lies  outside  of  the  scope  of  the  present  inquiry. 
Of  course  no  question  is  here  entertained  as  to  the 
truth  or  beauty  of  the  creeds  on  which  the  cults  pro¬ 
ceed.  And  even  their  remoter  economic  bearing  can 
not  be  taken  up  here;  the  subject  is  too  recondite 
and  of  too  grave  import  to  find  a  place  in  so  slight  a 
sketch. 


293 


294  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

Something  has  been  said  in  an  earlier  chapter  as  to 
the  influence  which  pecuniary  standards  of  value  exert 
upon  the  processes  of  valuation  carried  out  on  other 
bases,  not  related  to  the  pecuniary  interest.  The  rela¬ 
tion  is  not  altogether  one-sided.  The  economic  stand¬ 
ards  or  canons  of  valuation  are  in  their  turn  influenced 
by  extra-economic  standards  of  value.  Our  judgments 
of  the  economic  bearing  of  facts  are  to  some  extent 
shaped  by  the  dominant  presence  of  these  weightier 
interests.  There  is  a  point  of  view,  indeed,  from  which 
the  economic  interest  is  of  weight  only  as  being 
ancillary  to  these  higher,  non-economic  interests.  For 
the  present  purpose,  therefore,  some  thought  must  be 
taken  to  isolate  the  economic  interest  or  the  economic 
bearing  of  these  phenomena  of  anthropomorphic  cults. 
It  takes  some  effort  to  divest  oneself  of  the  more 
serious  point  of  view,  and  to  reach  an  economic  appre¬ 
ciation  of  these  facts,  with  as  little  as  may  be  of  the 
bias  due  to  higher  interests  extraneous  to  economic 
theory. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  sporting  temperament,  it 
has  appeared  that  the  sense  of  an  animistic  propensity 
in  material  things  and  events  is  what  affords  the 
spiritual  basis  of  the  sporting  man’s  gambling  habit. 
For  the  economic  purpose,  this  sense  of  propensity  is 
substantially  the  same  psychological  element  as  ex¬ 
presses  itself,  under  a  variety  of  forms,  in  animistic 
beliefs  and  anthropomorphic  creeds.  So  far  as  con¬ 
cerns  those  tangible  psychological  features  with  which 
ecpnomic  theory  has  to  deal,  the  gambling  spirit  which 


Devout  Observances 


295 


pervades  the  sporting1 'element  shades  off  by  insensible 
gradations  into  that  frame  of  mind  which  finds  gratifi¬ 
cation  in  devout  observances.  As  seen  from  the  point 
of  view  of  economic  theory,  the  sporting  character 
shades  off  into  the  character  of  a  religious  devotee. 
Where  the  betting  man’s  animistic  sense  is  helped  out 
by  a  somewhat  consistent  tradition,  it  has  developed 
into  a  more  or  less  articulate  belief  in  a  preternatural 
or  hyperphysical  agency,  with  something  of  an  anthro¬ 
pomorphic  content.  And  where  this  is  the  case,  there 
is  commonly  a  perceptible  inclination  to  make  terms 
with  the  preternatural  agency  by  some  approved  method 
of  approach  and  conciliation.  This  element  of  propitia¬ 
tion  and  cajoling  has  much  in  common  with  the  crasser 
forms  of  worship  —  if  not  in  historical  derivation,  at  least 
in  actual  psychological  content.  It  obviously  shades  off 
in  unbroken  continuity  into  what  is  recognised  as 
superstitious  practice  and  belief,  and  so  asserts  its 
claim  to  kinship  with  the  grosser  anthropomorphic  cults. 

The  sporting  or  gambling  temperament,  then,  com¬ 
prises  some  of  the  substantial  psychological  elements 
that  go  to  make  a  believer  in  creeds  and  an  observer 
of  devout  forms,  the  chief  point  of  coincidence  being 
the  belief  in  an  inscrutable  propensity  or  a  preternatural 
interposition  in  the  sequence  of  events.  For  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  the  gambling  practice  the  belief  in  preter¬ 
natural  agency  may  be,  and  ordinarily  is,  less  closely 
formulated,  especially  as  regards  the  habits  of  thought 
and  the  scheme  of  life  imputed  to  the  preternatural 
agent ;  or,  in  other  words,  as  regards  his  moral  char¬ 
acter  and  his  purposes  in  interfering  in  events.  With 


296  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

respect  to  the  individuality  or  personality  of  the 
agency  whose  presence  as  luck,  or  chance,  or  hoodoo, 
or  mascot,  etc.,  he  feels  and  sometimes  dreads  and 
endeavours  to  evade,  the  sporting  man’s  views  are  also 
less  specific,  less  integrated  and  differentiated.  The 
basis  of  his  gambling  activity  is,  in  great  measure, 
simply  an  instinctive  sense  of  the  presence  of  a  per¬ 
vasive  extraphysical  and  arbitrary  force  or  propensity 
in  things  or  situations,  which  is  scarcely  recognised 
as  a  personal  agent.  The  betting  man  is  not  infre¬ 
quently  both  a  believer  in  luck,  in  this  naive  sense, 
and  at  the  same  time  a  pretty  staunch  adherent  of 
some  form  of  accepted  creed.  He  is  especially  prone 
to  accept  so  much  of  the  creed  as  concerns  the  inscru¬ 
table  power  and  the  arbitrary  habits  of  the  divinity 
which  has  won  his  confidence.  In  such  a  case  he  is 
possessed  of  two,  or  sometimes  more  than  two,  distin¬ 
guishable  phases  of  animism.  Indeed,  the  complete 
series  of  successive  phases  of  animistic  belief  is  to  be 
found  unbroken  in  the  spiritual  furniture  of  any  sport¬ 
ing  community.  Such  a  chain  of  animistic  conceptions 
will  comprise  the  most  elementary  form  of  an  instinc¬ 
tive  sense  of  luck  and  chance  and  fortuitous  necessity 
at  one  end  of  the  series,  together  with  the  perfectly 
developed  anthropomorphic  divinity  at  the  other  end, 
with  all  intervening  stages  of  integration.  Coupled 
with  these  beliefs  in  preternatural  agency  goes  an 
instinctive  shaping  of  conduct  to  conform  with  the 
surmised  requirements  of  the  lucky  chance  on  the  one 
hand,  and  a  more  or  less  devout  submission  to  the 
inscrutable  decrees  of  the  divinity  on  the  other  hand. 


Devout  Observances 


29  7 


There  is  a  relationship  in  this  respect  between  the 
sporting  temperament  and  the  temperament  of  the  de¬ 
linquent  classes  ;  and  the  two  are  related  to  the  tempera¬ 
ment  which  inclines  to  an  anthropomorphic  cult.  Both 
the  delinquent  and  the  sporting  man  are  on  an  average 
more  apt  to  be  adherents  of  some  accredited  creed,  and 
are  also  rather  more  inclined  to  devout  observances,  than 
the  general  average  of  the  community.  It  is  also  notice¬ 
able  that  unbelieving  members  of  these  classes  show 
more  of  a  proclivity  to  become  proselytes  to  some  ac¬ 
credited  faith  than  the  average  of  unbelievers.  This 
fact  of  observation  is  avowed  by  the  spokesmen  of 
sports,  especially  in  apologising  for  the  more  naively 
predatory  athletic  sports.  Indeed,  it  is  somewhat  in¬ 
sistently  claimed  as  a  meritorious  feature  of  sporting 
life  that  the  habitual  participants  in  athletic  games 
are  in  some  degree  peculiarly  given  to  devout  prac¬ 
tices.  And  it  is  observable  that  the  cult  to  which 
sporting  men  and  the  predaceous  delinquent  classes 
adhere,  or  to  which  proselytes  from  these  classes  com¬ 
monly  attach  themselves,  is  ordinarily  not  one  of  the 
so-called  higher  faiths,  but  a  cult  which  has  to  do  with 
a  thoroughly  anthropomorphic  divinity.  Archaic,  pred¬ 
atory  human  nature  is  not  satisfied  with  abstruse  con¬ 
ceptions  of  a  dissolving  personality  that  shades  off  into 
the  concept  of  quantitative  causal'  sequence,  such  as  the 
speculative,  esoteric  creeds  of  Christendom  impute  to 
the  First  Cause,  Universal  Intelligence,  World  Soul,  or 
Spiritual  Aspect.  As  an  instance  of  a  cult  of  the  char¬ 
acter  which  the  habits  of  mind  of  the  athlete  and  the 
delinquent  require,  may  be  cited  that  branch  of  the 


298  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

church  militant  known  as  the  Salvation  Army.  This 
is  to  some  extent  recruited  from  the  lower-class  delin¬ 
quents,  and  it  appears  to  comprise  also,  among  its 
officers  especially,  a  larger  proportion  of  men  with  a 
sporting  record  than  the  proportion  of  such  men  in 
the  aggregate  population  of  the  community. 

College  athletics  afford  a  case  in  point.  It  is  con¬ 
tended  by  exponents  of  the  devout  element  in  college 
life — and  there  seems  to  be  no  ground  for  disputing 
the  claim  —  that  the  desirable  athletic  material  afforded 
by  any  student  body  in  this  country  is  at  the  same  time 
predominantly  religious  ;  or  that  it  is  at  least  given  to 
devout  observances  to  a  greater  degree  than  the  average 
of  those  students  whose  interest  in  athletics  and  other 
college  sports  is  less.  This  is  what  might  be  expected 
on  theoretical  grounds.  It  may  be  remarked,  by  the 
way,  that  from  one  point  of  view  this  is  felt  to  reflect 
credit  on  the  college  sporting  life,  on  athletic  games, 
and  on  those  persons  who  occupy  themselves  with  these 
matters.  It  happens  not  infrequently  that  college  sport¬ 
ing  men  devote  themselves  to  the  religious  propaganda, 
either  as  a  vocation  or  as  a  by-occupation  ;  and  it  is 
observable  that  when  this  happens  they  are  likely  to 
become  propagandists  of  some  one  of  the  more  anthro¬ 
pomorphic  cults.  In  their  teaching  they  are  apt  to 
insist  chiefly  on  the  personal  relation  of  status  which 
subsists  between  an  anthropomorphic  divinity  and  the 
human  subject. 

This  intimate  relation  between  athletics  and  devout 
observance  among  college  men  is  a  fact  of  sufficient 
notoriety  ;  but  it  has  a  special  feature  to  which  atten- 


Devout  Observances 


299 


tion  has  not  been  called,  although  it  is  obvious  enough. 
The  religious  zeal  which  pervades  much  of  the  college 
sporting  element  is  especially  prone  to  express  itself  in 
an  unquestioning  devoutness  and  a  na'fve  and  compla¬ 
cent  submission  to  an  inscrutable  Providence.  It  there¬ 
fore  by  preference  seeks  affiliation  with  some  one  of 
those  lay  religious  organisations  which  occupy  them¬ 
selves  with  the  spread  of  the  exoteric  forms  of  the  faith, 
—  as,  e.g.y  the  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association  or  the 
Young  People’s  Society  for  Christian  Endeavour.  These 
lay  bodies  are  organised  to  further  “ practical”  religion  ; 
and  as  if  to  enforce  the  argument  and  firmly  establish 
the  close  relationship  between  the  sporting  tempera¬ 
ment  and  the  archaic  devoutness,  these  lay  religious 
bodies  commonly  devote  some  appreciable  portion  of 
their  energies  to  the  furtherance  of  athletic  contests 
and  similar  games  of  chance  and  skill.  It  might  even 
be  said  that  sports  of  this  kind  are  apprehended  to  have 
some  efficacy  as  a  means  of  grace.  They  are  appar¬ 
ently  useful  as  a  means  of  proselyting,  and  as  a  means 
of  sustaining  the  devout  attitude  in  converts  once  made. 
That  is  to  say,  the  games  which  give  exercise  to  the 
animistic  sense  and  to  the  emulative  propensity  help 
to  form  and  to  conserve  that  habit  of  mind  to  which 
the  more  exoteric  cults  are  congenial.  Hence,  in  the 
hands  of  the  lay  organisations,  these  sporting  activities 
come  to  do  duty  as  a  novitiate  or  a  means  of  induction 
into  that  fuller  unfolding  of  the  life  of  spiritual  status 
which  is  the  privilege  of  the  full  communicant  alone. 

That  the  exercise  of  the  emulative  and  lower  ani¬ 
mistic  proclivities  are  substantially  useful  for  the 


300  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

devout  purpose  seems  to  be  placed  beyond  question 
by  the  fact  that  the  priesthood  of  many  denominations 
is  following  the  lead  of  the  lay  organisations  in  this 
respect.  Those  ecclesiastical  organisations  especially 
which  stand  nearest  the  lay  organisations  in  their 
insistence  on  practical  religion  have  gone  some  way 
towards  adopting  these  or  analogous  practices  in  con¬ 
nection  with  the  traditional  devout  observances.  So 
there  are  “boys’  brigades,”  and  other  organisations, 
under  clerical  sanction,  acting  to  develop  the  emulative 
proclivity  and  the  sense  of  status  in  the  youthful 
members  of  the  congregation.  These  pseudo-military 
organisations  tend  to  elaborate  and  accentuate  the  pro¬ 
clivity  to  emulation  and  invidious  comparison,  and  so 
strengthen  the  native  facility  for  discerning  and  approv¬ 
ing  the  relation  of  personal  mastery  and  subservience. 
And  a  believer  is  eminently  a  person  who  knows  how 
to  obey  and  accept  chastisement  with  good  grace. 

But  the  habits  of  thought  which  these  practices 
foster  and  conserve  make  up  but  one-half  of  the  sub¬ 
stance  of  the  anthropomorphic  cults.  The  other,  com¬ 
plementary  element  of  devout  life  —  the  animistic  habit 
of  mind  —  is  recruited  and  conserved  by  a  second 
range  of  practices  organised  under  clerical  sanction. 
These  are  the  class  of  gambling  practices  of  which 
the  church  bazaar  or  raffle  may  be  taken  as  the  type. 
As  indicating  the  degree  of  legitimacy  of  these  prac¬ 
tices  in  connection  with  devout  observances  proper,  it 
is  to  be  remarked  that  these  raffles,  and  the  like  trivial 
opportunities  for  gambling,  seem  to  appeal  with  more 
effect  to  the  common  run  of  the  members  of  religious 


Devout  Observances 


301 


organisations  than  they  do  to  persons  of  a  less  devout 
habit  of  mind. 

All  this  seems  to  argue,  on  the  one  hand,  that  the 
same  temperament  inclines  people  to  sports  as  inclines 
them  to  the  anthropomorphic  cults,  and  on  the  other 
hand  that  the  habituation  to  sports,  perhaps  especially 
to  athletic  sports,  acts  to  develop  the  propensities 
which  find  satisfaction  in  devout  observances.  Con¬ 
versely  ;  it  also  appears  that  habituation  to  these  obser¬ 
vances  favours  the  growth  of  a  proclivity  for  athletic 
sports  and  for  all  games  that  give  play  to  the  habit  of 
invidious  comparison  and  of  the  appeal  to  luck.  Sub¬ 
stantially  the  same  range  of  propensities  finds  expres¬ 
sion  in  both  these  directions  of  the  spiritual  life.  That 
barbarian  human  nature  in  which  the  predatory  instinct 
and  the  animistic  standpoint  predominate  is  normally 
prone  to  both.  The  predatory  habit  of  mind  involves 
an  accentuated  sense  of  personal  dignity  and  of  the 
relative  standing  of  individuals.  The  social  structure 
in  which  the  predatory  habit  has  been  the  dominant 
factor  in  the  shaping  of  institutions  is  a  structure  based 
on  status.  The  pervading  norm  in  the  predatory  com¬ 
munity’s  scheme  of  life  is  the  relation  of  superior  and 
inferior,  noble  and  base,  dominant  and  subservient  per¬ 
sons  and  classes,  master  and  slave.  The  anthropo¬ 
morphic  cults  have  come  down  from  that  stage  of 
industrial  development  and  have  been  shaped  by  the 
same  scheme  of  economic  differentiation,  —  a  differen¬ 
tiation  into  consumer  and  producer, — and  they  are 
pervaded  by  the  same  dominant  principle  of  mastery 
and  subservience.  The  cults  impute  to  their  divinity 


302  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

the  habits  of  thought  answering  to  the  stage  of  eco¬ 
nomic  differentiation  at  which  the  cults  took  shape. 
The  anthropomorphic  divinity  is  conceived  to  be  punc¬ 
tilious  in  all  questions  of  precedence  and  is  prone  to 
an  assertion  of  mastery  and  an  arbitrary  exercise  of 
power  —  an  habitual  resort  to  force  as  the  final  arbiter. 

In  the  later  and  maturer  formulations  of  the  anthro¬ 
pomorphic  creed  this  imputed  habit  of  dominance  on 
the  part  of  a  divinity  of  awful  presence  and  inscrutable 
power  is  chastened  into  “the  fatherhood  of  God.”  The 
spiritual  attitude  and  the  aptitudes  imputed  to  the  pre¬ 
ternatural  agent  are  still  such  as  belong  under  the 
regime  of  status,  but  they  now  assume  the  patriarchal 
cast  characteristic  of  the  quasi-peaceable  stage  of  cul¬ 
ture.  Still  it  is  to  be  noted  that  even  in  this  advanced 
phase  of  the  cult  the  observances  in  which  devoutness 
finds  expression  consistently  aim  to  propitiate  the 
divinity  by  extolling  his  greatness  and  glory  and  by 
professing  subservience  and  fealty.  The  act  of  pro¬ 
pitiation  or  of  worship  is  designed  to  appeal  to  a  sense 
of  status  imputed  to  the  inscrutable  power  that  is  thus 
approached.  The  propitiatory  formulas  most  in  vogue 
are  still  such  as  carry  or  imply  an  invidious  compari¬ 
son.  A  loyal  attachment  to  the  person  of  an  anthro¬ 
pomorphic  divinity  endowed  with  such  an  archaic 
human  nature  implies  the  like  archaic  propensities  in 
the  devotee.  For  the  purposes  of  economic  theory, 
the  relation  of  fealty,  whether  to  a  physical  or  to  an 
extraphysical  person,  is  to  be  taken  as  a  variant  of  that 
personal  subservience  which  makes  up  so  large  a  share 
of  the  predatory  and  the  quasi-peaceable  scheme  of  life. 


Devout  Observances 


303 


The  barbarian  conception  of  the  divinity,  as  a  warlike 
chieftain  inclined  to  an  overbearing  manner  of  govern¬ 
ment,  has  been  greatly  softened  through  the  milder 
manners  and  the  soberer  habits  of  life  that  characterise 
those  cultural  phases  which  lie  between  the  early  preda¬ 
tory  stage  and  the  present.  But  even  after  this  chasten¬ 
ing  of  the  devout  fancy,  and  the  consequent  mitigation 
of  the  harsher  traits  of  conduct  and  character  that  are 
currently  imputed  to  the  divinity,  there  still  remains  in 
the  popular  apprehension  of  the  divine  nature  and  tem¬ 
perament  a  very  substantial  residue  of  the  barbarian 
conception.  So  it  comes  about,  for  instance,  that  in 
characterising  the  divinity  and  his  relations  to  the  pro¬ 
cess  of  human  life,  speakers  and  writers  are  still  able  to 
make  effective  use  of  similes  borrowed  from  the  vocabu¬ 
lary  of  war  and  of  the  predatory  manner  of  life,  as  well 
as  of  locutions  which  involve  an  invidious  comparison. 
Figures  of  speech  of  this  import  are  used  with  good 
effect  even  in  addressing  the  less  warlike  modern  audi¬ 
ences,  made  up  of  adherents  of  the  blander  variants  of 
the  creed.  This  effective  use  of  barbarian  epithets  and 
terms  of  comparison  by  popular  speakers  argues  that 
the  modern  generation  has  retained  a  lively  appreciation 
of  the  dignity  and  merit  of  the  barbarian  virtues  ;  and  it 
argues  also  that  there  is  a  degree  of  congruity  between 
the  devout  attitude  and  the  predatory  habit  of  mind. 
It  is  only  on  second  thought,  if  at  all,  that  the  devout 
fancy  of  modern  worshippers  revolts  at  the  imputation  of 
ferocious  and  vengeful  emotions  and  actions  to  the  object 
of  their  adoration.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  obser¬ 
vation  that  sanguinary  epithets  applied  to  the  divinity 


304  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

have  a  high  aesthetic  and  honorific  value  in  the  popular 
apprehension.  That  is  to  say,  suggestions  which  these 
epithets  carry  are  very  acceptable  to  our  unreflecting 
apprehension. 

Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord ; 

He  is  trampling  out  the  vintage  where  the  grapes  of  wrath  are 
stored ; 

He  hath  loosed  the  fateful  lightning  of  his  terrible  swift  sword ; 

His  truth  is  marching  on. 

The  guiding  habits  of  thought  of  a  devout  person 
move  on  the  plane  of  an  archaic  scheme  of  life  which 
has  outlived  much  of  its  usefulness  for  the  economic 
exigencies  of  the  collective  life  of  to-day.  In  so  far  as 
the  economic  organisation  fits  the  exigencies  of  the 
collective  life  of  to-day,  it  has  outlived  the  regime  of 
status,  and  has  no  use  and  no  place  for  a  relation  of 
personal  subserviency.  So  far  as  concerns  the  eco¬ 
nomic  efficiency  of  the  community,  the  sentiment  of 
personal  fealty,  and  the  general  habit  of  mind  of  which 
that  sentiment  is  an  expression,  are  survivals  which 
cumber  the  ground  and  hinder  an  adequate  adjustment 
of  human  institutions  to  the  existing  situation.  The 
habit  of  mind  which  best  lends  itself  to  the  purposes  of 
a  peaceable,  industrial  community,  is  that  matter-of-fact 
temper  which  recognises  the  value  of  material  facts 
simply  as  opaque  items  in  the  mechanical  sequence. 
It  is  that  frame  of  mind  which  does  not  instinctively 
impute  an  animistic  propensity  to  things,  nor  resort  to 
preternatural  intervention  as  an  explanation  of  perplex¬ 
ing  phenomena,  nor  depend  on  an  unseen  hand  to  shape 
the  course  of  events  to  human  use.  To  meet  the  re- 


Devout  Observances 


305 


quirements  of  the  highest  economic  efficiency  under 
modern  conditions,  the  world  process  must  habitually 
be  apprehended  in  terms  of  quantitative,  dispassionate 
force  and  sequence. 

As  seen  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  later  economic 
exigencies,  devoutness  is,  perhaps  in  all  cases,  to  be 
looked  upon  as  a  survival  from  an  earlier  phase  of 
associated  life  —  a  mark  of  arrested  spiritual  develop¬ 
ment.  Of  course  it  remains  true  that  in  a  community 
where  the  economic  structure  is  still  substantially  a 
system  of  status  ;  where  the  attitude  of  the  average  of 
persons  in  the  community  is  consequently  shaped  by 
and  adapted  to  the  relation  of  personal  dominance  and 
personal  subservience  ;  or  where  for  any  other  reason  — 
of  tradition  or  of  inherited  aptitude  —  the  population  as 
a  whole  is  strongly  inclined  to  devout  observances;  there 
a  devout  habit  of  mind  in  any  individual,  not  in  excess 
of  the  average  of  the  community,  must  be  taken  simply 
as  a  detail  of  the  prevalent  habit  of  life.  In  this  light, 
a  devout  individual  in  a  devout  community  can  not  be 
called  a  case  of  reversion,  since  he  is  abreast  of  the 
average  of  the  community.  But  as  seen  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  modern  industrial  situation,  exceptional 
devoutness  —  devotional  zeal  that  rises  appreciably 
above  the  average  pitch  of  devoutness  in  the  com¬ 
munity  —  may  safely  be  set  down  as  in  all  cases  an 
atavistic  trait. 

It  is,  of  course,  equally  legitimate  to  consider  these 
phenomena  from  a  different  point  of  view.  They  may 
be  appreciated  for  a  different  purpose,  and  the  charac¬ 
terisation  here  offered  may  be  turned  about.  In  speak- 


306  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

ing  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  devotional  interest,  or 
the  interest  of  devout  taste,  it  may,  with  equal  cogency, 
be  said  that  the  spiritual  attitude  bred  in  men  by  the 
modern  industrial  life  is  unfavourable  to  a  free  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  life  of  faith.  It  might  fairly  be  objected 
to  the  later  development  of  the  industrial  process  that 
its  discipline  tends  to  “materialism,”  to  the  elimination 
of  filial  piety.  From  the  aesthetic  point  of  view,  again, 
something  to  a  similar  purport  might  be  said.  But, 
however  legitimate  and  valuable  these  and  the  like  re¬ 
flections  may  be  for  their  purpose,  they  would  not  be  in 
place  in  the  present  inquiry,  which  is  exclusively  con¬ 
cerned  with  the  valuation  of  these  phenomena  from  the 
economic  point  of  view. 

The  grave  economic  significance  of  the  anthropomor¬ 
phic  habit  of  mind  and  of  the  addiction  to  devout 
observances  must  serve  as  apology  for  speaking  further 
on  a  topic  which  it  can  not  but  be  distasteful  to  discuss 
at  all  as  an  economic  phenomenon  in  a  community  so 
devout  as  ours.  Devout  observances  are  of  economic 
importance  as  an  index  of  a  concomitant  variation  of 
temperament,  accompanying  the  predatory  habit  of 
mind  and  so  indicating  the  presence  of  industrially 
clisserviceable  traits.  They  indicate  the  presence  of  a 
mental  attitude  which  has  a  certain  economic  value  of 
its  own  by  virtue  of  its  influence  upon  the  industrial 
serviceability  of  the  individual.  But  they  are  also  of 
importance  more  directly,  in  modifying  the  economic 
activities  of  the  community,  especially  as  regards  the 
distribution  and  consumption  of  goods. 

The  most  obvious  economic  bearing  of  these  observ- 


Devout  Observances 


307 


ances  is  seen  in  the  devout  consumption  of  goods  and 
services.  The  consumption  of  ceremonial  paraphernalia 
required  by  any  cult,  in  the  way  of  shrines,  temples, 
churches,  vestments,  sacrifices,  sacraments,  holiday 
attire,  etc.,  serve  no  immediate  material  end.  All  this 
material  apparatus  may,  therefore,  without  implying 
deprecation,  be  broadly  characterised  as  items  of  con¬ 
spicuous  waste.  The  like  is  true  in  a  general  way  of 
the  personal  service  consumed  under  this  head ;  such  as 
priestly  education,  priestly  service,  pilgrimages,  fasts, 
holidays,  household  devotions,  and  the  like.  At  the 
same  time  the  observances  in  the  execution  of  which 
this  consumption  takes  place  serve  to  extend  and  pro¬ 
tract  the  vogue  of  those  habits  of  thought  on  which  an 
anthropomorphic  cult  rests.  That  is  to  say,  they  fur¬ 
ther  the  habits  of  thought  characteristic  of  the  regime 
of  status.  They  are  in  so  far  an  obstruction  to  the 
most  effective  organisation  of  industry  under  modern 
circumstances  ;  and  are,  in  the  first  instance,  antagonis¬ 
tic  to  the  development  of  economic  institutions  in  the 
direction  required  by  the  situation  of  to-day.  For  the 
present  purpose,  the  indirect  as  well  as  the  direct  effects 
of  this  consumption  are  of  the  nature  of  a  curtailment 
of  the  community’s  economic"  efficiency.  In  economic 
theory,  then,  and  considered  in  its  proximate  conse¬ 
quences,  the  consumption  of  goods  and  effort  in  the 
service  of  an  anthropomorphic  divinity  means  a  lowering 
of  the  vitality  of  the  community.  What  may  be  the 
remoter,  indirect,  moral  effects  of  this  class  of  con¬ 
sumption  does  not  admit  of  a  succinct  answer,  and  it 
is  a  question  which  can  not  be  taken  up  here. 


308  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

It  will  be  to  the  point,  however,  to  note  the  general 
economic  character  of  devout  consumption,  in  compari¬ 
son  with  consumption  for  other  purposes.  An  indica¬ 
tion  of  the  range  of  motives  and  purposes  from  which 
devout  consumption  of  goods  proceeds  will  help  toward 
an  appreciation  of  the  value  both  of  this  consumption 
itself  and  of  the  general  habit  of  mind  to  which  it  is 
congenial.  There  is  a  striking  parallelism,  if  not  rather 
a  substantial  identity  of  motive,  between  the  consump¬ 
tion  which  goes  to  the  service  of  an  anthropomorphic 
divinity  and  that  which  goes  to  the  service  of  a  gentle¬ 
man  of  leisure  — a  chieftain  or  patriarch  —  in  the  upper 
class  of  society  during  the  barbarian  culture.  Both  in 
the  case  of  the  chieftain  and  in  that  of  the  divinity 
there  are  expensive  edifices  set  apart  for  the  behoof  of 
the  person  served.  These  edifices,  as  well  as  the  prop¬ 
erties  which  supplement  them  in  the  service,  must  not 
be  common  in  kind  or  grade  ;  they  always  show  a  large 
element  of  conspicuous  waste.  It  may  also  be  noted 
that  the  devout  edifices  are  invariably  of  an  archaic  cast 
in  their  structure  and  fittings.  So  also  the  servants, 
both  of  the  chieftain  and  of  the  divinity,  must  appear  in 
the  presence  clothed  in  garments  of  a  special,  ornate 
character.  The  characteristic  economic  feature  of  this 
apparel  is  a  more  than  ordinarily  accentuated  conspicu¬ 
ous  waste,  together  with  the  secondary  feature  —  more 
accentuated  in  the  case  of  the  priestly  servants  than  in 
that  of  the  servants  or  courtiers  of  the  barbarian  poten¬ 
tate  —  that  this  court  dress  must  always  be  in  some 
degree  of  an  archaic  fashion.  Also  the  garments  worn 
by  the  lay  members  of  the  community  when  they  come 


Devout  Observances 


309 


into  the  presence,  should  be  of  a  more  expensive  kind 
than  their  everyday  apparel.  Here,  again,  the  parallel¬ 
ism  between  the  usage  of  the  chieftain’s  audience  hall 
and  that  of  the  sanctuary  is  fairly  well  marked.  In  this 
respect  there  is  required  a  certain  ceremonial  “  clean¬ 
ness  ”  of  attire,  the  essential  features  of  which,  in  the 
economic  respect,  is  that  the  garments  worn  on  these 
occasions  should  carry  as  little  suggestion  as  may  be  of 
any  industrial  occupation  or  of  any  habitual  addiction 
to  such  employments  as  are  of  material  use. 

This  requirement  of  conspicuous  waste  and  of  cere¬ 
monial  cleanness  from  the  traces  of  industry  extends 
also  to  the  apparel,  and  in  a  less  degree  to  the  food, 
which  is  consumed  on  sacred  holidays  ;  that  is  to  say, 
on  days  set  apart — tabu  —  for  the  divinity  or  for  some 
member  of  the  lower  ranks  of  the  preternatural  leisure 
class.  In  economic  theory,  sacred  holidays  are  ob¬ 
viously  to  be  construed  as  a  season  of  vicarious  leisure 
performed  for  the  divinity  or  saint  in  whose  name  the 
tabu  is  imposed  and  to  whose  good  repute  the  absten¬ 
tion  from  useful  effort  on  those  days  is  conceived  to 
inure.  The  characteristic  feature  of  all  such  seasons  of 
devout  vicarious  leisure  is  a  more  or  less  rigid  tabu  on 
all  activity  that  is  of  human  use.  In  the  case  of  fast- 
days  the  conspicuous  abstention  from  gainful  occupa¬ 
tions  and  from  all  pursuits  that  (materially)  further 
human  life  is  further  accentuated  by  compulsory  absti¬ 
nence  from  such  consumption  as  would  conduce  to  the 
comfort  or  the  fulness  of  life  of  the  consumer. 

It  may  be  remarked,  parenthetically,  that  secular 
holidays  are  of  the  same  origin,  by  slightly  remoter  de- 


310  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

» 

rivation.  They  shade  off  by  degrees  from  the  gen¬ 
uinely  sacred  days,  through  an  intermediate  class  of 
semi-sacred  birthdays  of  kings  and  great  men  who  have 
been  in  some  measure  canonised,  to  the  deliberately 
invented  holiday  set  apart  to  further  the  good  repute  of 
some  notable  event  or  some  striking  fact,  to  which  it  is 
intended  to  do  honour,  or  the  good  fame  of  which  is  felt 
to  be  in  need  of  repair.  This  remoter  refinement  in 
the  employment  of  vicarious  leisure  as  a  means  of  aug¬ 
menting  the  good  repute  of  a  phenomenon  or  datum  is 
seen  at  its  best  in  its  very  latest  application.  A  day  of 
vicarious  leisure  has  in  some  communities  been  set 
apart  as  Labour  Day.  This  observance  is  designed  to 
augment  the  prestige  of  the  fact  of  labour,  by  the 
archaic,  predatory  method  of  a  compulsory  abstention 
from  useful  effort.  To  this  datum  of  labour  in  general 
is  imputed  the  good  repute  attributable  to  the  pecuni¬ 
ary  strength  put  in  evidence  by  abstaining  from  labour. 

Sacred  holidays,  and  holidays  generally,  are  of  the 
nature  of  a  tribute  levied  on  the  body  of  the  people. 
The  tribute  is  paid  in  vicarious  leisure,  and  the  hono¬ 
rific  effect  which  emerges  is  imputed  to  the  person  or 
the  fact  for  whose  good  repute  the  holiday  has  been 
instituted.  Such  a  tithe  of  vicarious  leisure  is  a  per¬ 
quisite  of  all  members  of  the  preternatural  leisure  class 
and  is  indispensable  to  their  good  fame.  Un  saint 
qu' on  n'e  chome  pas  is  indeed  a  saint  fallen  on  evil  days. 

Besides  this  tithe  of  vicarious  leisure  levied  on  the 
laity,  there  are  also  special  classes  of  persons  —  the 
various  grades  of  priests  and  hierodules  —  whose  time 
is  wholly  set  apart  for  a  similar  service.  It  is  not  only 


Devout  Observances 


31 1 

incumbent  on  the  priestly  class  to  abstain  from  vulgar 
labour,  especially  so  far  as  it  is  lucrative  or  is  appre¬ 
hended  to  contribute  to  the  temporal  well-being  of  man¬ 
kind.  The  tabu  in  the  case  of  the  priestly  class  goes 
farther  and  adds  a  refinement  in  the  form  of  an  injunc¬ 
tion  against  their  seeking  worldly  gain  even  where  it 
may  be  had  without  debasing  application  to  industry. 
It  is  felt  to  be  unworthy  of  the  servant  of  the  divinity, 
or  rather  unworthy  the  dignity  of  the  divinity  whose 
servant  he  is,  that  he  should  seek  material  gain  or  take 
thought  for  temporal  matters.  “  Of  all  contemptible 
things  a  man  who  pretends  to  be  a  priest  of  God  and  is 
a  priest  to  his  own  comforts  and  ambitions  is  the  most 
contemptible.” 

There  is  a  line  of  discrimination,  which  a  cultivated 
taste  in  matters  of  devout  observance  finds  little  diffi¬ 
culty  in  drawing,  between  such  actions  and  conduct  as 
conduce  to  the  fulness  of  human  life  and  such  as  con¬ 
duce  to  the  good  fame  of  the  anthropomorphic  divinity ; 
and  the  activity  of  the  priestly  class,  in  the  ideal  bar¬ 
barian  scheme,  falls  wholly  on  the  hither  side  of  this 
line.  What  falls  within  the  range  of  economics  falls 
below  the  proper  level  of  solicitude  of  the  priesthood  in 
its  best  estate.  Such  apparent  exceptions  to  this  rule 
as  are  afforded,  for  instance,  by  some  of  the  mediaeval 
orders  of  monks  (the  members  of  which  actually  la¬ 
boured  to  some  useful  end),  scarcely  impugn  the  rule. 
These  outlying  orders  of  the  priestly  class  are  not  a 
sacerdotal  element  in  the  full  sense  of  the  term.  And 
it  is  noticeable  also  that  these  doubtfully  sacerdotal 
orders,  which  countenanced  their  members  in  earning  a 


312  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

living,  fell  into  disrepute  through  offending  the  sense  of 
propriety  in  the  communities  where  they  existed. 

The  priest  should  not  put  his  hand  to  mechanically 
productive  work  ;  but  he  should  consume  in  large  meas¬ 
ure.  But  even  as  regards  his  consumption  it  is  to  be 
noted  that  it  should  take  such  forms  as  do  not  obviously 
conduce  to  his  own  comfort  or  fulness  of  life ;  it  should 
conform  to  the  rules  governing  vicarious  consumption, 
as  explained  under  that  head  in  an  earlier  chapter.  It 
is  not  ordinarily  in  good  form  for  the  priestly  class  to 
appear  well  fed  or  in  hilarious  spirits.  Indeed,  in  many 
of  the  more  elaborate  cults  the  injunction  against  other 
than  vicarious  consumption  by  this  class  frequently 
goes  so  far  as  to  enjoin  mortification  of  the  flesh.  And 
even  in  those  modern  denominations  which  have  been 
organised  under  the  latest  formulations  of  the  creed,  in 
a  modern  industrial  community,  it  is  felt  that  all  levity 
and  avowed  zest  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  good  things  of 
this  world  is  alien  to  the  true  clerical  decorum.  What¬ 
ever  suggests  that  these  servants  of  an  invisible  master 
are  living  a  life,  not  of  devotion  to  their  master’s  good 
fame,  but  of  application  to  their  own  ends,  jars  harshly 
on  our  sensibilities  as  something  fundamentally  and 
eternally  wrong.  They  are  a  servant  class,  although, 
being  servants  of  a  very  exalted  master,  they  rank  high 
in  the  social  scale  by  virtue  of  this  borrowed  light. 
Their  consumption  is  vicarious  consumption  ;  and  since, 
in  the  advanced  cults,  their  master  has  no  need  of  mate¬ 
rial  gain,  their  occupation  is  vicarious  leisure  in  the  full 
sense.  “Whether  therefore  ye  eat,  or  drink,  or  whatso¬ 
ever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God.” 


Devout  Observances 


313 


It  may  be  added  that  so  far  as  the  laity  is  assimilated 
to  the  priesthood  in  the  respect  that  they  are  conceived 
to  be  servants  of  the  divinity,  so  far  this  imputed  vica¬ 
rious  character  attaches  also  to  the  layman’s  life.  The 
range  of  application  of  this  corollary  is  somewhat  wide. 
It  applies  especially  to  such  movements  for  the  reform 
or  rehabilitation  of  the  religious  life  as  are  of  an  austere, 
pietistic,  ascetic  cast,  —  where  the  human  subject  is 
conceived  to  hold  his  life  by  a  direct  servile  tenure  from 
his  spiritual  sovereign.  That  is  to  say,  where  the  insti¬ 
tution  of  the  priesthood  lapses,  or  where  there  is  an 
exceptionally  lively  sense  of  the  immediate  and  master¬ 
ful  presence  of  the  divinity  in  the  affairs  of  life,  there 
the  layman  is  conceived  to  stand  in  an  immediate  ser¬ 
vile  relation  to  the  divinity,  and  his  life  is  construed  to 
be  a  performance  of  vicarious  leisure  directed  to  the 
enhancement  of  his  master’s  repute.  In  such  cases  of 
reversion  there  is  a  return  to  the  unmediated  relation  of 
subservience,  as  the  dominant  fact  of  the  devout  attitude. 
The  emphasis  is  thereby  thrown  on  an  austere  and  dis¬ 
comforting  vicarious  leisure,  to  the  neglect  of  conspicu¬ 
ous  consumption  as  a  means  of  grace. 

A  doubt  will  present  itself  as  to  the  full  legitimacy 
of  this  characterisation  of  the  sacerdotal  scheme  of  life, 
on  the  ground  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  the 
modern  priesthood  depart  from  the  scheme  in  many 
details.  The  scheme  does  not  hold  good  for  the  clergy 
of  those  denominations  which  have  in  some  measure 
diverged  from  the  old  established  schedule  of  beliefs  or 
observances.  These  take  thought,  at  least  ostensibly 
or  permissively,  for  the  temporal  welfare  of  the  laity,  as 


314  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

well  as  for  their  own.  Their  manner  of  life,  not  only- 
in  the  privacy  of  their  own  household,  but  often  even 
before  the  public,  does  not  differ  in  an  extreme  degree 
from  that  of  secular-minded  persons,  either  in  its  osten¬ 
sible  austerity  or  in  the  archaism  of  its  apparatus. 
This  is  truest  for  those  denominations  that  have  wan¬ 
dered  the  farthest.  To  this  objection  it  is  to  be  said 
that  we  have  here  to  do  not  with  a  discrepancy  in  the 
theory  of  sacerdotal  life,  but  with  an  imperfect  con¬ 
formity  to  the  scheme  on  the  part  of  this  body  of  clergy. 
They  are  but  a  partial  and  imperfect  representative  of 
the  priesthood,  and  must  not  be  taken  as  exhibiting  the 
sacerdotal  scheme  of  life  in  an  authentic  and  competent 
manner.  The  clergy  of  the  sects  and  denominations 
might  be  characterised  as  a  half-caste  priesthood,  or  a 
priesthood  in  process  of  becoming  or  of  reconstitution. 
Such  a  priesthood  may  be  expected  to  show  the  char¬ 
acteristics  of  the  sacerdotal  office  only  as  blended  and 
obscured  with  alien  motives  and  traditions,  due  to  the 
disturbing  presence  of  other  factors  than  those  of  ani¬ 
mism  and  status  in  the  purposes  of  the  organisations  to 
which  this  non-conforming  fraction  of  the  priesthood 
belongs. 

Appeal  may  be  taken  direct  to  the  taste  of  any  per¬ 
son  with  a  discriminating  and  cultivated  sense  of  the 
sacerdotal  proprieties,  or  to  the  prevalent  sense  of  what 
constitutes  clerical  decorum  in  any  community  at  all  ac¬ 
customed  to  think  or  to  pass  criticism  on  what  a  clergy¬ 
man  may  or  may  not  do  without  blame.  Even  in  the 
most  extremely  secularised  denominations,  there  is  some 
sense  of  a  distinction  that  should  be  observed  between 


Devout  Observances 


315 


the  sacerdotal  and  the  lay  scheme  of  life.  There  is  no 
person  of  sensibility  but  feels  that  where  the  members 
of  this  denominational  or  sectarian  clergy  depart  from 
traditional  usage,  in  the  direction  of  a  less  austere  or 
less  archaic  demeanour  and  apparel,  they  are  departing 
from  the  ideal  of  priestly  decorum.  There  is  probably 
no  community  and  no  sect  within  the  range  of  the 
Western  culture  in  which  the  bounds  of  permissible 
indulgence  are  not  drawn  appreciably  closer  for  the 
incumbent  of  the  priestly  office  than  for  the  common 
layman.  If  the  priest’s  own  sense  of  sacerdotal  pro¬ 
priety  does  not  effectually  impose  a  limit,  the  prevalent 
sense  of  the  proprieties  on  the  part  of  the  community 
will  commonly  assert  itself  so  obtrusively  as  to  lead  to 
his  conformity  or  his  retirement  from  office. 

Few  if  any  members  of  any  body  of  clergy,  it  may  be 
added,  would  avowedly  seek  an  increase  of  salary  for 
gain’s  sake ;  and  if  such  avowal  were  openly  made  by  a 
clergyman,  it  would  be  found  obnoxious  to  the  sense  of 
propriety  among  his  congregation.  It  may  also  be 
noted  in  this  connection  that  no  one  but  the  scoffers 
and  the  very  obtuse  are  not  instinctively  grieved  in¬ 
wardly  at  a  jest  from  the  pulpit;  and  that  there  are 
none  whose  respect  for  their  pastor  does  not  suffer 
through  any  mark  of  levity  on  his  part  in  any  con¬ 
juncture  of  life,  except  it  be  levity  of  a  palpably  histri¬ 
onic  kind  —  a  constrained  unbending  of  dignity.  The 
diction  proper  to  the  sanctuary  and  to  the  priestly  office 
should  also  carry  little  if  any  suggestion  of  effective 
everyday  life,  and  should  not  draw  upon  the  vocabulary 
of  modern  trade  or  industry.  Likewise,  one’s  sense  of 


3i 6  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

the  proprieties  is  readily  offended  by  too  detailed  and 
intimate  a  handling  of  industrial  and  other  purely  human 
questions  at  the  hands  of  the  clergy.  There  is  a  cer¬ 
tain  level  of  generality  below  which  a  cultivated  sense 
of  the  proprieties  in  homiletical  discourse  will  not 
permit  a  well-bred  clergyman  to  decline  in  his  discus¬ 
sion  of  temporal  interests.  These  matters  that  are  of 
human  and  secular  consequence  simply,  should  properly 
be  handled  with  such  a  degree  of  generality  and  aloof¬ 
ness  as  may  imply  that  the  speaker  represents  a  master 
whose  interest  in  secular  affairs  goes  only  so  far  as  to 
permissively  countenance  them. 

It  is  further  to  be  noticed  that  the  non-conforming 
sects  and  variants  whose  priesthood  is  here  under  dis¬ 
cussion,  vary  among  themselves  in  the  degree  of  their 
conformity  to  the  ideal  scheme  of  sacerdotal  life.  In  a 
general  way  it  will  be  found  that  the  divergence  in  this 
respect  is  widest  in  the  case  of  the  relatively  young 
denominations,  and  especially  in  the  case  of  such  of  the 
newer  denominations  as  have  chiefly  a  lower  middle- 
class  constituency.  They  commonly  show  a  large 
admixture  of  humanitarian,  philanthropic,  or  other 
motives  which  can  not  be  classed  as  expressions  of 
the  devotional  attitude ;  such  as  the  desire  of  learning 
or  of  conviviality,  which  enter  largely  into  the  effective 
interest  shown  by  members  of  these  organisations. 
The  non-conforming  or  sectarian  movements  have  com¬ 
monly  proceeded  from  a  mixture  of  motives,  some  of 
which  are  at  variance  with  that  sense  of  status  on  which 
the  priestly  office  rests.  Sometimes,  indeed,  the  motive 
has  been  in  good  part  a  revulsion  against  a  system  of 


Devout  Observances 


317 


status.  Where  this  is  the  case  the  institution  of  the 
priesthood  has  broken  down  in  the  transition,  at  least 
partially.  The  spokesman  of  such  an  organisation  is 
at  the  outset  a  servant  and  representative  of  the  organi¬ 
sation,  rather  than  a  member  of  a  special  priestly  class 
and  the  spokesman  of  a  divine  master.  And  it  is  only 
by  a  process  of  gradual  specialisation  that,  in  succeed¬ 
ing  generations,  this  spokesman  regains  the  position  of 
priest,  with  a  full  investiture  of  sacerdotal  authority, 
and  with  its  accompanying  austere,  archaic  and  vicari¬ 
ous  manner  of  life.  The  like  is  true  of  the  breakdown 
and  redintegration  of  devout  ritual  after  such  a  revul¬ 
sion.  The  priestly  office,  the  scheme  of  sacerdotal  life, 
and  the  schedule  of  devout  observances  are  rehabili¬ 
tated  only  gradually,  insensibly,  and  with  more  or  less 
variation  in  details,  as  the  persistent  human  sense  of 
devout  propriety  reasserts  its  primacy  in  questions 
touching  the  interest  in  the  preternatural,  —  and,  it 
may  be  added,  as  the  organisation  increases  in  wealth, 
and  so  acquires  more  of  the  point  of  view  and  the 
habits  of  thought  of  a  leisure  class. 

Beyond  the  priestly  class,  and  ranged  in  an  ascending 
hierarchy,  ordinarily  comes  a  superhuman  vicarious 
leisure  class  of  saints,  angels,  etc.,  —  or  their  equiva¬ 
lents  in  the  ethnic  cults.  These  rise  in  grade,  one 
above  another,  according  to  an  elaborate  system  of 
status.  The  principle  of  status  runs  through  the  en¬ 
tire  hierarchical  system,  both  visible  and  invisible. 
The  good  fame  of  these  several  orders  of  the  super¬ 
natural  hierarchy  also  commonly  requires  a  certain 
tribute  of  vicarious  consumption  and  vicarious  leisure. 


3*8 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


In  many  cases  they  accordingly  have  devoted  to  their 
service  sub-orders  of  attendants  or  dependents  who  per¬ 
form  a  vicarious  leisure  for  them,  after  much  the  same 
fashion  as  was  found  in  an  earlier  chapter  to  be  true  of 
the  dependent  leisure  class  under  the  patriarchal  system. 


It  may  not  appear  without  reflection  how  these  devout 
observances  and  the  peculiarity  of  temperament  which 
they  imply,  or  the  consumption  of  goods  and  services 
which  is  comprised  in  the  cult,  stand  related  to  the 
leisure  class  of  a  modern  community,  or  to  the  economic 
motives  of  which  that  class  is  the  exponent  in  the 
modern  scheme  of  life.  To  this  end  a  summary  review 
of  certain  facts  bearing  on  this  relation  will  be  useful. 

It  appears  from  an  earlier  passage  in  this  discussion 
that  for  the  purpose  of  the  collective  life  of  to-day, 
especially  so  far  as  concerns  the  industrial  efficiency  of 
the  modern  community,  the  characteristic  traits  of  the 
devout  temperament  are  a  hindrance  rather  than  a  help. 
It  should  accordingly  be  found  that  the  modern  indus¬ 
trial  life  tends  selectively  to  eliminate  these  traits  of  hu¬ 
man  nature  from  the  spiritual  constitution  of  the  classes 
that  are  immediately  engaged  in  the  industrial  process. 
It  should  hold  true,  approximately,  that  devoutness  is 
declining  or  tending  to  obsolescence  among  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  what  may  be  called  the  effective  industrial  com¬ 
munity.  At  the  same  time  it  should  appear  that  this 
aptitude  or  habit  survives  in  appreciably  greater  vigour 
among  those  classes  which  do  not  immediately  or  pri¬ 
marily  enter  into  the  community’s  life  process  as  an 
industrial  factor.  d  o 

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Devout  Observances 


319 


It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  these  latter 
classes,  which  live  by,  rather  than  in,  the  industrial 
process,  are  roughly  comprised  under  two  categories  : 
(1)  the  leisure  class  proper,  which  is  shielded  from  the 
stress  of  the  economic  situation;  and  (2)  the  indigent 
classes,  including  the  lower-class  delinquents,  which  are 
unduly  exposed  to  the  stress.  In  the  case  of  the  former 
class  an  archaic  habit  of  mind  persists  because  no  effect¬ 
ual  economic  pressure  constrains  this  class  to  an  adap¬ 
tation  of  its  habits  of  thought  to  the  changing  situation  ; 
while  in  the  latter  the  reason  for  a  failure  to  adjust  their 
habits  of  thought  to  the  altered  requirements  of  indus¬ 
trial  efficiency  is  innutrition,  absence  of  such  a  surplus 
of  energy  as  is  needed  in  order  to  make  the  adjustment 
with  facility,  together  with  a  lack  of  opportunity  to 
acquire  and  become  habituated  to  the  modern  point  of 
view.  The  trend  of  the  selective  process  runs  in  much 
the  same  direction  in  both  cases. 

From  the  point  of  view  which  the  modern  industrial 
life  inculcates,  phenomena  are  habitually  subsumed 
under  the  quantitative  relation  of  mechanical  sequence. 
The  indigent  classes  not  only  fall  short  of  the  modicum 
of  leisure  necessary  in  order  to  appropriate  and  assimi¬ 
late  the  more  recent  generalisations  of  science  which 
this  point  of  view  involves,  but  they  also  ordinarily 
stand  in  such  a  relation  of  personal  dependence  or  sub¬ 
servience  to  their  pecuniary  superiors  as  materially  to 
retard  their  emancipation  from  habits  of  thought  proper 
to  the  regime  of  status.  The  result  is  that  these  classes 
in  some  measure  retain  that  general  habit  of  mind 
the  chief  expression  of  which  is  a  strong  sense  of 


320  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

personal  status,  and  of  which  devoutness  is  one 
feature. 

In  the  older  communities  of  the  European  culture,  the 
hereditary  leisure  class,  together  with  the  mass  of  the 
indigent  population,  are  given  to  devout  observances  in 
an  appreciably  higher  degree  than  the  average  of  the 
industrious  middle  class,  wherever  a  considerable  class 
of  the  latter  character  exists.  But  in  some  of  these 
countries,  the  two  categories  of  conservative  humanity 
named  above  comprise  virtually  the  whole  population. 
Where  these  two  classes  greatly  preponderate,  their 
bent  shapes  popular  sentiment  to  such  an  extent  as  to 
bear  down  any  possible  divergent  tendency  in  the  in¬ 
considerable  middle  class,  and  imposes  a  devout  attitude 
upon  the  whole  community. 

This  must,  of  course,  not  be  construed  to  say  that 
such  communities  or  such  classes  as  are  exceptionally 
prone  to  devout  observances  tend  to  conform  in  any 
exceptional  degree  to  the  specifications  of  any  code  of 
morals  that  we  may  be  accustomed  to  associate  with 
this  or  that  confession  of  faith.  A  large  measure  of  the 
devout  habit  of  mind  need  not  carry  with  it  a  strict 
observance  of  the  injunctions  of  the  Decalogue  or  of  the 
common  law.  Indeed,  it  is  becoming  somewhat  of  a 
commonplace  with  observers  of  criminal  life  in  European 
communities  that  the  criminal  and  dissolute  classes  are, 
if  anything,  rather  more  devout,  and  more  naively  so, 
than  the  average  of  the  population.  It  is  among  those 
who  constitute  the  pecuniary  middle  class  and  the  body 
of  law-abiding  citizens  that  a  relative  exemption  from 
the  devotional  attitude  is  to  be  looked  for.  Those  who 


Devout  Observances 


321 


best  appreciate  the  merits  of  the  higher  creeds  and 
observances  would  object  to  all  this  and  say  that  the 
devoutness  of  the  low-class  delinquents  is  a  spurious,  or 
at  the  best  a  superstitious  devoutness  ;  and  the  point 
is  no  doubt  well  taken  and  goes  directly  and  cogently 
to  the  purpose  intended.  But  for  the  purpose  of  the 
present  inquiry  these  extra-economic,  extra-psychologi¬ 
cal  distinctions  must  perforce  be  neglected,  however 
valid  and  however  decisive  they  may  be  for  the  purpose 
for  which  they  are  made. 

What  has  actually  taken  place  with  regard  to  class 
emancipation  from  the  habit  of  devout  observance  is 
shown  by  the  latter-day  complaint  of  the  clergy,  — that 
the  churches  are  losing  the  sympathy  of  the  artisan 
classes,  and  are  losing  their  hold  upon  them.  At  the 
same  time  it  is  currently  believed  that  the  middle  class, 
commonly  so  called,  is  also  falling  away  in  the  cordiality 
of  its  support  of  the  church,  especially  so  far  as  regards 
the  adult  male  portion  of  that  class.  These  are  cur¬ 
rently  recognised  phenomena,  and  it  might  seem  that  a 
simple  reference  to  these  facts  should  sufficiently  sub¬ 
stantiate  the  general  position  outlined.  Such  an  appeal 
to  the  general  phenomena  of  popular  church  attendance 
and  church  membership  may  be  sufficiently  convincing 
for  the  proposition  here  advanced.  But  it  will  still  be 
to  the  purpose  to  trace  in  some  detail  the  course  of 
events  and  the  particular  forces  which  have  wrought 
this  change  in  the  spiritual  attitude  of  the  more  ad¬ 
vanced  industrial  communities  of  to-day.  It  will  serve 
to  illustrate  the  manner  in  which  economic  causes  work 
towards  a  secularisation  of  men’s  habits  of  thought.  In 


322  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

this  respect  the  American  community  should  afford  an 
exceptionally  convincing  illustration,  since  this  com¬ 
munity  has  been  the  least  trammelled  by  external 
circumstances  of  any  equally  important  industrial 

aggregate. 

After  making  due  allowance  for  exceptions  and  spo¬ 
radic  departures  from  the  normal,  the  situation  here  at 
the  present  time  may  be  summarised  quite  briefly.  As 
a  general  rule  the  classes  that  are  low  in  economic  effi¬ 
ciency,  or  in  intelligence,  or  both,  are  peculiarly  devout, 
—  as,  for  instance,  the  negro  population  of  the  South, 
much  of  the  lower-class  foreign  population,  much  of  the 
rural  population,  especially  in  those  sections  which  are 
backward  in  education,  in  the  stage  of  development  of 
their  industry,  or  in  respect  of  their  industrial  contact 
with  the  rest  of  the  community.  So  also  such  frag¬ 
ments  as  we  possess  of  a  specialised  or  hereditary  indi¬ 
gent  class,  or  of  a  segregated  criminal  or  dissolute  class ; 
although  among  these  latter  the  devout  habit  of  mind  is 
apt  to  take  the  form  of  a  naive  animistic  belief  in  luck 
and  in  the  efficacy  of  shamanistic  practices  perhaps 
more  frequently  than  it  takes  the  form  of  formal  adher¬ 
ence  to  any  accredited  creed.  The  artisan  class,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  notoriously  falling  away  from  the 
accredited  anthropomorphic  creeds  and  from  all  devout 
observances.  This  class  is  in  an  especial  degree  ex¬ 
posed  to  the  characteristic  intellectual  and  spiritual 
stress  of  modern  organised  industry,  which  requires  a 
constant  recognition  of  the  undisguised  phenomena  of 
impersonal,  matter-of-fact  sequence  and  an  unreserved 
conformity  to  the  law  of  cause  and  effect.  This  class  is 


Devout  Observances 


323 


at  the  same  time  not  underfed  nor  overworked  to  such 
an  extent  as  to  leave  no  margin  of  energy  for  the  work 
of  adaptation. 

The  case  of  the  lower  or  doubtful  leisure  class  in 
America  —  the  middle  class  commonly  so  called  —  is 
somewhat  peculiar.  It  differs  in  respect  of  its  devo¬ 
tional  life  from  its  European  counterpart,  but  it  differs 
in  degree  and  method  rather  than  in  substance.  The 
churches  still  have  the  pecuniary  support  of  this  class  ; 
although  the  creeds  to  which  the  class  adheres  with  the 
greatest  facility  are  relatively  poor  in  anthropomorphic 
content.  At  the  same  time  the  effective  middle-class 
congregation  tends,  in  many  cases,  more  or  less  re¬ 
motely  perhaps,  to  become  a  congregation  of  women 
and  minors.  There  is  an  appreciable  lack  of  devotional 
fervour  among  the  adult  males  of  the  middle  class, 
although  to  a  considerable  extent  there  survives  among 
them  a  certain  complacent,  reputable  assent  to  the  out¬ 
lines  of  the  accredited  creed  under  which  they  were 
born.  Their  everyday  life  is  carried  on  in  a  more  or 
less  close  contact  with  the  industrial  process. 

This  peculiar  sexual  differentiation,  which  tends  to 
delegate  devout  observances  to  the  women  and  their 
children,  is  due,  at  least  in  part,  to  the  fact  that  the 
middle-class  women  are  in  great  measure  a  (vicarious) 
leisure  class.  The  same  is  true  in  a  less  degree  of  the 
women  of  the  lower  artisan  classes.  They  live  under  a 
regime  of  status  handed  down  from  an  earlier  stage  of 
industrial  development,  and  thereby  they  preserve  a 
frame  of  mind  and  habits  of  thought  which  incline  them 
to  an  archaic  view  of  things  generally.  At  the  same 


324  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

time  they  stand  in  no  such  direct  organic  relation  to  the 
industrial  process  at  large  as  would  tend  strongly  to 
break  down  those  habits  of  thought  which,  for  the 
modern  industrial  purpose,  are  obsolete.  That  is  to  say, 
the  peculiar  devoutness  of  women  is  a  particular  expres¬ 
sion  of  that  conservatism  which  the  women  of  civilised 
communities  owe,  in  great  measure,  to  their  economic 
position.  For  the  modern  man  the  patriarchal  relation 
of  status  is  by  no  means  the  dominant  feature  of  life ; 
but  for  the  women  on  the  other  hand,  and  for  the  upper 
middle-class  women  especially,  confined  as  they  are  by 
prescription  and  by  economic  circumstances  to  their 
“  domestic  sphere,”  this  relation  is  the  most  real  and 
most  formative  factor  of  life..  Hence  a  habit  of  mind 
favourable  to  devout  observances  and  to  the  interpreta¬ 
tion  of  the  facts  of  life  generally  in  terms  of  personal 
status.  The  logic,  and  the  logical  processes,  of  her 
everyday  domestic  life  are  carried  over  into  the  realm  of 
the  supernatural,  and  the  woman  finds  herself  at  home 
and  content  in  a  range  of  ideas  which  to  the  man  are  in 
great  measure  alien  and  imbecile. 

Still,  the  men  of  this  class  are  also  not  devoid  of 
piety,  although  it  is  commonly  not  piety  of  an  aggres¬ 
sive  or  exuberant  kind.  The  men  of  the  upper  middle 
class  commonly  take  a  more  complacent  attitude  towards 
devout  observances  than  the  men  of  the  artisan  class. 
This  may  perhaps  be  explained  in  part  by  saying  that 
what  is  true  of  the  women  of  the  class  is  true  to  a  less 
extent  also  of  the  men.  They  are  to  an  appreciable  ex¬ 
tent  a  sheltered  class  ;  and  the  patriarchal  relation  of 
status,  which  still  persists  in  their  conjugal  life  and  in 


Devout  Observances 


325 

their  habitual  use  of  servants,  may  also  act  to  conserve 
an  archaic  habit  of  mind  and  may  exercise  a  retarding 
influence  upon  the  process  of  secularisation  which  their 
habits  of  thought  are  undergoing.  The  relations  of  the 
American  middle-class  man  to  the  economic  community, 
however,  are  usually  pretty  close  and  exacting ;  although 
it  may  be  remarked,  by  the  way  and  in  qualification,  that 
their  economic  activity  frequently  also  partakes  in  some 
degree  of  the  patriarchal  or  quasi-predatory  character. 
The  occupations  which  are  in  good  repute  among  this 
class,  and  which  have  most  to  do  with  shaping  the  class 
habits  of  thought,  are  the  pecuniary  occupations  which 
have  been  spoken  of  in  a  similar  connection  in  an  earlier 
chapter.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  the  relation  of  arbi¬ 
trary  command  and  submission,  and  not  a  little  of 
shrewd  practice,  remotely  akin  to  predatory  fraud.  All 
this  belongs  on  the  plane  of  life  of  the  predatory  bar¬ 
barian,  to  whom  a  devotional  attitude  is  habitual.  And 
in  addition  to  this,  the  devout  observances  also  com¬ 
mend  themselves  to  this  class  on  the  ground  of  reputa¬ 
bility.  But  this  latter  incentive  to  piety  deserves 
treatment  by  itself  and  will  be  spoken  of  presently. 

There  is  no  hereditary  leisure  class  of  any  conse¬ 
quence  in  the  American  community,  except  at  the 
South.  This  Southern  leisure  class  is  somewhat  given 
to  devout  observances ;  more  so  than  any  class  of  cor¬ 
responding  pecuniary  standing  in  other  parts  of  the 
country.  It  is  also  well  known  that  the  creeds  of  the 
South  are  of  a  more  old-fashioned  cast  than  their  coun¬ 
terparts  at  the  North.  Corresponding  to  this  more 
archaic  devotional  life  of  the  South  is  the  lower  in- 


326  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

dustrial  development  of  that  section.  The  industrial 
organisation  of  the  South  is  at  present,  and  especially 
it  has  been  until  quite  recently,  of  a  more  primitive 
character  than  that  of  the  American  community  taken 
as  a  whole.  It  approaches  nearer  to  handicraft,  in  the 
paucity  and  rudeness  of  its  mechanical  appliances,  and 
there  is  more  of  the  element  of  mastery  and  subservi¬ 
ence.  It  may  also  be  noted  that,  owing  to  the  peculiar 
economic  circumstances  of  this  section,  the  greater 
devoutness  of  the  Southern  population,  both  white  and 
black,  is  correlated  with  a  scheme  of  life  which  in  many 
ways  recalls  the  barbarian  stages  of  industrial  develop¬ 
ment.  Among  this  population  offences  of  an  archaic 
character  also  are  and  have  been  relatively  more  preva¬ 
lent  and  are  less  deprecated  than  they  are  elsewhere ; 
as,  for  example,  duels,  brawls,  feuds,  drunkenness, 
horse-racing,  cock-fighting,  gambling,  male  sexual  in¬ 
continence  (evidenced  by  the  considerable  number  of 
mulattoes).  There  is  also  a  livelier  sense  of  honour  — 
an  expression  of  sportsmanship  and  a  derivative  of  pred¬ 
atory  life. 

As  regards  the  wealthier  class  of  the  North,  the 
American  leisure  class  in  the  best  sense  of  the  term, 
it  is,  to  begin  with,  scarcely  possible  to  speak  of  an 
hereditary  devotional  attitude.  This  class  is  of  too 
recent  growth  to  be  possessed  of  a  well-formed  trans¬ 
mitted  habit  in  this  respect,  or  even  of  a  special  home¬ 
grown  tradition.  Still,  it  may  be  noted  in  passing  that 
there  is  a  perceptible  tendency  among  this  class  to  give 
in  at  least  a  nominal,  and  apparently  something  of  a 
real,  adherence  to  some  one  of  the  accredited  creeds. 


Devout  Observances 


327 


Also,  weddings,  funerals,  and  the  like  honorific  events 
among  this  class  are  pretty  uniformly  solemnised  with 
some  especial  degree  of  religious  circumstance.  It  is 
impossible  to  say  how  far  this  adherence  to  a  creed  is 
a  bona  fide  reversion  to  a  devout  habit  of  mind,  and 
how  far  it  is  to  be  classed  as  a  case  of  protective  mimi¬ 
cry  assumed  for  the  purpose  of  an  outward  assimilation 
to  canons  of  reputability  borrowed  from  foreign  ideals. 
Something  of  a  substantial  devotional  propensity  seems 
to  be  present,  to  judge  especially  by  the  somewhat 
peculiar  degree  of  ritualistic  observance  which  is  in 
process  of  development  in  the  upper-class  cults.  There 
is  a  tendency  perceptible  among  the  upper-class  wor¬ 
shippers  to  affiliate  themselves  with  those  cults  which 
lay  relatively  great  stress  on  ceremonial  and  on  the 
spectacular  accessories  of  worship  :  and  in  the  churches 
in  which  an  upper-class  membership  predominates, 
there  is  at  the  same  time  a  tendency  to  accentuate 
the  ritualistic,  at  the  cost  of  the  intellectual  features 
in  the  service  and  in  the  apparatus  of  the  devout  obser¬ 
vances.  This  holds  true  even  where  the  church  in 
question  belongs  to  a  denomination  with  a  relatively 
slight  general  development  of  ritual  and  paraphernalia. 
This  peculiar  development  of  the  ritualistic  element  is 
no  doubt  due  in  part  to  a  predilection  for  conspicuously 
wasteful  spectacles,  but  it  probably  also  in  part  indi¬ 
cates  something  of  the  devotional  attitude  of  the  wor¬ 
shippers.  So  far  as  the  latter  is  true,  it  indicates  a 
relatively  archaic  form  of  the  devotional  habit.  The 
predominance  of  spectacular  effects  in  devout  obser¬ 
vances  is  noticeable  in  all  devout  communities  at  a 


328  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

relatively  primitive  stage  of  culture  and  with  a  slight 
intellectual  development.  It  is  especially  characteristic 
of  the  barbarian  culture.  Here  there  is  pretty  uni¬ 
formly  present  in  the  devout  observances  a  direct  ap¬ 
peal  to  the  emotions  through  all  the  avenues  of  sense. 
And  a  tendency  to  return  to  this  naive,  sensational 
method  of  appeal  is  unmistakable  in  the  upper-class 
churches  of  to-day.  It  is  perceptible  in  a  less  degree  in 
the  cults  which  claim  the  allegiance  of  the  lower  leis¬ 
ure  class  and  of  the  middle  classes.  There  is  a  reversion 
to  the  use  of  coloured  lights  and  brilliant  spectacles,  a 
freer  use  of  symbols,  orchestral  music  and  incense,  and 
one  may  even  detect,  in  “processionals”  and  “reces¬ 
sionals  ”  and  in  richly  varied  genuflexional  evolutions, 
an  incipient  reversion  to  so  antique  an  accessory  of  wor¬ 
ship  as  the  sacred  dance. 

This  reversion  to  spectacular  observances  is  not  con¬ 
fined  to  the  upper-class  cults,  although  it  finds  its  best 
exemplification  and  its  highest  accentuation  in  the 
higher  pecuniary  and  social  altitudes.  The  cults  of 
the  lower-class  devout  portion  of  the  community,  such 
as  the  Southern  negroes  and  the  backward  foreign 
elements  of  the  population,  of  course  also  show  a  strong 
inclination  to  ritual,  symbolism,  and  spectacular  effects  ; 
as  might  be  expected  from  the  antecedents  and  the 
cultural  level  of  those  classes.  With  these  classes  the 
prevalence  of  ritual  and  anthropomorphism  are  not  so 
much  a  matter  of  reversion  as  of  continued  develop¬ 
ment  out  of  the  past.  But  the  use  of  ritual  and  related 
features  of  devotion  are  also  spreading  in  other  direc¬ 
tions.  In  the  early  days  of  the  American  community, 


Devout  Obsei'vaiices 


329 


the  prevailing  denominations  started  out  with  a  ritual 
and  paraphernalia  of  an  austere  simplicity ;  but  it  is  a 
matter  familiar  to  every  one  that  in  the  course  of  time 
these  denominations  have,  in  a  varying  degree,  adopted 
much  of  the  spectacular  elements  which  they  once 
renounced.  In  a  general  way,  this  development  has 
gone  hand  in  hand  with  the  growth  of  the  wealth  and 
the  ease  of  life  of  the  worshippers  and  has  reached  its 
fullest  expression  among  those  classes  which  grade 
highest  in  wealth  and  repute. 

The  causes  to  which  this  pecuniary  stratification  of 
devoutness  is  due  have  already  been  indicated  in  a 
general  way  in  speaking  of  class  differences  in  habits 
of  thought.  Class  differences  as  regards  devoutness 
are  but  a  special  expression  of  a  generic  fact.  The 
lax  allegiance  of  the  lower  middle  class,  or  what  may 
broadly  be  called  the  failure  of  filial  piety  among  this 
class,  is  chiefly  perceptible  among  the  town  populations 
engaged  in  the  mechanical  industries.  In  a  general 
way,  one  does  not,  at  the  present  time,  look  for  a 
blameless  filial  piety  among  those  classes  whose  em¬ 
ployment  approaches  that  of  the  engineer  and  the 
mechanician.  These  mechanical  employments  are  in 
a  degree  a  modern  fact.  The  handicraftsmen  of  earlier 
times,  who  served  an  industrial  end  of  a  character 
similar  to  that  now  served  by  the  mechanician,  were 
not  similarly  refractory  under  the  discipline  of  devout¬ 
ness.  The  habitual  activity  of  the  men  engaged  in 
these  branches  of  industry  has  greatly  changed,  as 
regards  its  intellectual  discipline,  since  the  modern 
industrial  processes  have  come  into  vogue ;  and  the 


330  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

discipline  to  which  the  mechanician  is  exposed  in  his 
daily  employment  affects  the  methods  and  standards 
of  his  thinking  also  on  topics  which  lie  outside  his 
everyday  work.  Familiarity  with  the  highly  organised 
and  highly  impersonal  industrial  processes  of  the 
present  acts  to  derange  the  animistic  habits  of  thought. 
The  workman’s  office  is  becoming  more  and  more 
exclusively  that  of  discretion  and  •  supervision  in  a 
process  of  mechanical,  dispassionate  sequences.  So 
long  as  the  individual  is  the  chief  and  typical  prime 
mover  in  the  process ;  so  long  as  the  obtrusive  feature 
of  the  industrial  process  is  the  dexterity  and  force  of 
the  individual  handicraftsman ;  so  long  the  habit  of 
interpreting  phenomena  in  terms  of  personal  motive 
and  propensity  suffers  no  such  considerable  and  con¬ 
sistent  derangement  through  facts  as  to  lead  to  its 
elimination.  But  under  the  later  developed  industrial 
processes,  when  the  prime  movers  and  the  contrivances 
through  which  they  work  are  of  an  impersonal,  non¬ 
individual  character,  the  grounds  of  generalisation 
habitually  present  in  the  workman’s  mind  and  the 
point  of  view  from  which  he  habitually  apprehends 
phenomena  is  an  enforced  cognisance  of  matter-of-fact 
sequence.  The  result,  so  far  as  concerns  the  work¬ 
man’s  life  of  faith,  is  a  proclivity  to  undevout  scepticism. 

It  appears,  then,  that  the  devout  habit  of  mind 
attains  its  best  development  under  a  relatively  archaic 
culture ;  the  term  “  devout  ”  being  of  course  here 
used  in  its  anthropological  sense  simply,  and  not  as 
implying  anything  with  respect  to  the  spiritual  attitude 
so  characterised,  beyond  the  fact  of  a  proneness  to 


Devout  Observances 


331 


devout  observances.  It  appears  also  that  this  devout 
attitude  marks  a  type  of  human  nature  which  is  more 
in  consonance  with  the  predatory  mode  of  life  than 
with  the  later-developed,  more  consistently  and  organi¬ 
cally  industrial  life  process  of  the  community.  It  is  in 
large  measure  an  expression  of  the  archaic  habitual 
sense  of  personal  status, —  the  relation  of  mastery  and 
subservience, —  and  it  therefore  fits  into  the  industrial 
scheme  of  the  predatory  and  the  quasi-peaceable  cul¬ 
ture,  but  does  not  fit  into  the  industrial  scheme  of  the 
present.  It  also  appears  that  this  habit  persists  with 
greatest  tenacity  among  those  classes  in  the  modern 
communities  whose  everyday  life  is  most  remote  from 
the  mechanical  processes  of  industry  and  which  are  the 
most  conservative  also  in  other  respects  ;  while  for 
those  classes  that  are  habitually  in  immediate  contact 
with  modern  industrial  processes,  and  whose  habits  of 
thought  are  therefore  exposed  to  the  constraining  force 
of  technological  necessities,  that  animistic  interpretation 
of  phenomena  and  that  respect  of  persons  on  which 
devout  observance  proceeds  are  in  process  of  obsoles¬ 
cence.  And  also  —  as  bearing  especially  on  the  present 
discussion  —  it  appears  that  the  devout  habit  to  some 
extent  progressively  gains  in  scope  and  elaboration 
among  those  classes  in  the  modern  communities  to 
whom  wealth  and  leisure  accrue  in  the  most  pronounced 
degree.  In  this  as  in  other  relations,  the  institution 
of  a  leisure  class  acts  to  conserve,  and  even  to  rehabili¬ 
tate,  that  archaic  type  of  human  nature  and  those 
elements  of  the  archaic  culture  which  the  industrial 
evolution  of  society  in  its  later  stages  acts  to  eliminate. 


* 


CHAPTER  XIII 

Survivals  of  the  Non-Invidious  Interest 

In  an  increasing  proportion  as  time  goes  on,  the 
anthropomorphic  cult,  with  its  code  of  devout  observ¬ 
ances,  suffers  a  progressive  disintegration  through  the 
stress  of  economic  exigencies  and  the  decay  of  the  sys¬ 
tem  of  status.  As  this  disintegration  proceeds,  there 
come  to  be  associated  and  blended  with  the  devout  atti¬ 
tude  certain  other  motives  and  impulses  that  are  not 
always  of  an  anthropomorphic  origin,  nor  traceable  to 
the  habit  of  personal  subservience.  Not  all  of  these 
subsidiary  impulses  that  blend  with  the  habit  of  devout¬ 
ness  in  the  later  devotional  life  are  altogether  congruous 
with  the  devout  attitude  or  with  the  anthropomorphic 
apprehension  of  the  sequence  of  phenomena.  Their 
origin  being  not  the  same,  their  action  upon  the  scheme 
of  devout  life  is  also  not  in  the  same  direction.  In 
many  ways  they  traverse  the  underlying  norm  of  sub¬ 
servience  or  vicarious  life  to  which  the  code  of  devout 
observances  and  the  ecclesiastical  and  sacerdotal  insti¬ 
tutions  are  to  be  traced  as  their  substantial  basis. 
Through  the  presence  of  these  alien  motives  the  social 
and  industrial  regime  of  status  gradually  disintegrates, 
and  the  canon  of  personal  subservience  loses  the  sup¬ 
port  derived  from  an  unbroken  tradition.  Extraneous 


332 


Survivals  of  the  Non-Invidious  Interest  333 

habits  and  proclivities  encroach  upon  the  field  of  action 
occupied  by  this  canon,  and  it  presently  comes  about 
that  the  ecclesiastical  and  sacerdotal  structures  are 
partially  converted  to  other  uses,  in  some  measure  alien 
to  the  purposes  of  the  scheme  of  devout  life  as  it  stood 
in  the  days  of  the  most  vigorous  and  characteristic 
development  of  the  priesthood. 

Among  these  alien  motives  which  affect  the  devout 
scheme  in  its  later  growth,  may  be  mentioned  the 
motives  of  charity  and  of  social  good-fellowship,  or  con¬ 
viviality.;  or,  in  more  general  terms,  the  various  expres¬ 
sions  of  the  sense  of  human  solidarity  and  sympathy. 
It  may  be  added  that  these  extraneous  uses  of  the  eccle¬ 
siastical  structure  contribute  materially  to  its  survival  in 
name  and  form  even  among  people  who  may  be  ready 
to  give  up  the  substance  of  it.  A  still  more  character¬ 
istic  and  more  pervasive  alien  element  in  the  motives 
which  have  gone  to  formally  uphold  the  scheme  of 
devout  life  is  that  non-reverent  sense  of  aesthetic  con- 
gruity  with  the  environment,  which  is  left  as  a  residue 
of  the  latter-day  act  of  worship  after  elimination  of  its 
anthropomorphic  content.  This  has  done  good  service 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  sacerdotal  institution  through 
blending  with  the  motive  of  subservience.  This  sense 
or  impulse  of  aesthetic  congruity  is  not  primarily  of  an 
economic  character,  but  it  has  a  considerable  indirect 
effect  in  shaping  the  habit  of  mind  of  the  individual 
for  economic  purposes  in  the  later  stages  of  industrial 
development ;  its  most  perceptible  effect  in  this  regard 
goes  in  the  direction  of  mitigating  the  somewhat  pro¬ 
nounced  self-regarding  bias  that  has  been  transmitted 


334  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

by  tradition  from  the  earlier,  more  competent  phases 
of  the  regime  of  status.  The  economic  bearing  of  this 
impulse  is  therefore  seen  to  traverse  that  of  the  devout 
attitude ;  the  former  goes  to  qualify,  if  not  to  elimi¬ 
nate,  the  self-regarding  bias,  through  sublation  of  the 
antithesis  or  antagonism  of  self  and  not-self ;  while  the 
latter,  being  an  expression  of  the  sense  of  personal  sub¬ 
servience  and  mastery,  goes  to  accentuate  this  antithesis 
and  to  insist  upon  the  divergence  between  the  self- 
regarding  interest  and  the  interests  of  the  generically 
human  life  process. 

This  non-invidious  residue  of  the  religious  life,  —  the 
sense  of  communion  with  the  environment,  or  with 
the  generic  life  process,  —  as  well  as  the  impulse  of 
charity  or  of  sociability,  act  in  a  pervasive  way  to  shape 
men’s  habits  of  thought  for  the  economic  purpose.  But 
the  action  of  all  this  class  of  proclivities  is  somewhat 
vague,  and  their  effects  are  difficult  to  trace  in  detail. 
So  much  seems  clear,  however,  as  that  the  action  of 
this  entire  class  of  motives  or  aptitudes  tends  in  a 
direction  contrary  to  the  underlying  principles  of  the 
institution  of  the  leisure  class  as  already  formulated. 
The  basis  of  that  institution,  as  well  as  of  the  anthropo¬ 
morphic  cults  associated  with  it  in  the  cultural  develop¬ 
ment,  is  the  habit  of  invidious  comparison  ;  and  this 
habit  is  incongruous  with  the  exercise  of  the  aptitudes 
now  in  question.  The  substantial  canons  of  the  leisure- 
class  scheme  of  life  are  a  conspicuous  waste  of  time  and 
substance  and  a  withdrawal  from  the  industrial  process  ; 
while  the  particular  aptitudes  here  in  question  assert 
themselves,  on  the  economic  side,  in  a  deprecation  of 


Survivals  of  the  Non-hividious  Interest  335 

waste  and  of  a  futile  manner  of  life,  and  in  an  impulse 
to  participation  in  or  identification  with  the  life  process, 
whether  it  be  on  the  economic  side  or  in  any  other  of 
its  phases  or  aspects. 

It  is  plain  that  these  aptitudes  and  the  habits  of  life 
to  which  they  give  rise  where  circumstances  favour 
their  expression,  or  where  they  assert  themselves  in  a 
dominant  way,  run  counter  to  the  leisure-class  scheme 
of  life  ;  but  it  is  not  clear  that  life  under  the  leisure- 
class  scheme,  as  seen  in  the  later  stages  of  its  develop¬ 
ment,  tends  consistently  to  the  repression  of  these 
aptitudes  or  to  Exemption  from  the  habits  of  thought 
in  which  they  express  themselves.  The  positive  disci¬ 
pline  of  the  leisure-class  scheme  of  life  goes  pretty 
much  all  the  other  way.  In  its  positive  discipline,  by 
prescription  and  by  selective  elimination,  the  leisure- 
class  scheme  favours  the  all-pervading  and  all-dominating 
primacy  of  the  canons  of  waste  and  invidious  comparison 
at  every  conjuncture  of  life.  But  in  its  negative  effects 
the  tendency  of  the  leisure-class  discipline  is  not  so 
unequivocally  true  to  the  fundamental  canons  of  the 
scheme.  In  its  regulation  of  human  activity  for  the 
purpose  of  pecuniary  decency  the  leisure-class  canon 
insists  on  withdrawal  from  the  industrial  process.  That 
is  to  say,  it  inhibits  activity  in  the  directions  in  which 
the  impecunious  members  of  the  community  habitually 
put  forth  their  efforts.  Especially  in  the  case  of  women, 
and  more  particularly  as  regards  the  upper-class  and 
upper-middle-class  women  of  advanced  industrial  com¬ 
munities,  this  inhibition  goes  so  far  as  to  insist  on 
withdrawal  even  from  the  emulative  process  of  accumu- 


336  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

lation  by  the  quasi-predatory  methods  of  the  pecuniary 
occupations. 

The  pecuniary  or  the  leisure-class  culture,  which  set 
out  as  an  emulative  variant  of  the  impulse  of  workman¬ 
ship,  is  in  its  latest  development  beginning  to  neutralise 
its  own  ground,  by  eliminating  the  habit  of  invidious 
comparison  in  respect  of  efficiency,  or  even  of  pecuniary 
standing.  On  the  other  hand,  the  fact  that  members 
of  the  leisure  class,  both  men  and  women,  are  to  some 
extent  exempt  from  the  necessity  of  finding  a  livelihood 
in  a  competitive  struggle  with  their  fellows,  makes  it 
possible  for  members  of  this  class  nof  only  to  survive, 
but  even,  within  bounds,  to  follow  their  bent  in  case 
they  are  not  gifted  with  the  aptitudes  which  make  for 
success  in  the  competitive  struggle.  That  is  to  say,  in 
the  latest  and  fullest  development  of  the  institution,  the 
livelihood  of  members  of  this  class  does  not  depend  on 
the  possession  and  the  unremitting  exercise  of  those 
aptitudes  which  characterise  the  successful  predatory 
man.  The  chances  of  survival  for  individuals  not  gifted 
with  those  aptitudes  are  therefore  greater  in  the  higher 
grades  of  the  leisure  class  than  in  the  general  average 
of  a  population  living  under  the  competitive  system. 

In  an  earlier  chapter,  in  discussing  the  conditions 
of  survival  of  archaic  traits,  it  has  appeared  that  the 
peculiar  position  of  the  leisure  class  affords  exception¬ 
ally  favourable  chances  for  the  survival  of  traits  which 
characterise  the  types  of  human  nature  proper  to  an 
earlier  and  obsolete  cultural  stage.  The  class  is  shel¬ 
tered  from  the  stress  of  economic  exigencies,  and  is  in 
this  sense  withdrawn  from  the  rude  impact  of  forces 


Survivals  of  the  Non-Invidious  Interest  337 

which  make  for  adaptation  to  the  economic  situation. 
The  survival  in  the  leisure  class,  and  under  the  leisure- 
class  scheme  of  life,  of  traits  and  types  that  are  reminis¬ 
cent  of  the  predatory  culture  has  already  been  discussed. 
These  aptitudes  and  habits  have  an  exceptionally  favour¬ 
able  chance  of  survival  under  the  leisure-class  regime. 
Not  only  does  the  sheltered  pecuniary  position  of  the 
leisure  class  afford  a  situation  favourable  to  the  sur¬ 
vival  of  such  individuals  as  are  not  gifted  with  the 
complement  of  aptitudes  required  for  serviceability  in 
the  modern  industrial  process ;  but  the  leisure-class 
canons  of  reputability  at  the  same  time  enjoin  the  con¬ 
spicuous  exercise  of  certain  predatory  aptitudes.  The 
employments  in  which  the  predatory  aptitudes  find  ex¬ 
ercise  serve  as  an  evidence  of  wealth,  birth,  and  with¬ 
drawal  from  the  industrial  process.  The  survival  of  the 
predatory  traits  under  the  leisure-class  culture  is  fur¬ 
thered  both  negatively,  through  the  industrial  exemp¬ 
tion  of  the  class,  and  positively,  through  the  sanction 
of  the  leisure-class  canons  of  decency. 

With  respect  to  the  survival  of  traits  characteristic  of 
the  ante-predatory  savage  culture  the  case  is  in  some 
degree  different.  The  sheltered  position  of  the  leisure 
class  favours  the  survival  also  of  these  traits  ;  but  the 
exercise  of  the  aptitudes  for  peace  and  good-will  does  , 
not  have  the  affirmative  sanction  of  the  code  of  pro¬ 
prieties.  Individuals  gifted  with  a  temperament  that 
is  reminiscent  of  the  ante-predatory  culture  are  placed 
at  something  of  an  advantage  within  the  leisure  class,  as 
compared  with  similarly  gifted  individuals  outside  the 
class,  in  that  they  are  not  under  a  pecuniary  necessity 


338  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

to  thwart  these  aptitudes  that  make  for  a  non-com¬ 
petitive  life ;  but  such  individuals  are  still  exposed  to 
something  of  a  moral  constraint  which  urges  them  to 
disregard  these  inclinations,  in  that  the  code  of  pro¬ 
prieties  enjoins  upon  them  habits  of  life  based  on  the 
predatory  aptitudes.  So  long  as  the  system  of  status 
remains  intact,  and  so  long  as  the  leisure  class  has 
other  lines  of  non-industrial  activity  to  take  to  than 
obvious  killing  of  time  in  aimless  and  wasteful  fatiga- 
tion,  so  long  no  considerable  departure  from  the  lei¬ 
sure-class  scheme  of  reputable  life  is  to  be  looked 
for.  The  occurrence  of  a  non-predatory  temperament 
within  the  class  at  that  stage  is  to  be  looked  upon  as 
a  case  of  sporadic  reversion.  But  the  reputable  non¬ 
industrial  outlets  for  the  human  propensity  to  action 
presently  fail,  through  the  advance  of  economic  devel¬ 
opment,  the  disappearance  of  large  game,  the  decline 
of  war,  the  obsolescence  of  proprietary  government,  and 
the  decay  of  the  priestly  office.  When  this  happens, 
the  situation  begins  to  change.  Human  life  must  seek 
expression  in  one  direction  if  it  may  not  in  another;  and 
if  the  predatory  outlet  fails,  relief  is  sought  elsewhere. 

As  indicated  above,  the  exemption  from  pecuniary 
stress  has  been  carried  farther  in  the  case  of  the 
leisure-class  women  of  the  advanced  industrial  com¬ 
munities  than  in  that  of  any  other  considerable  group 
of  persons.  The  women  may  therefore  be  expected 
to  show  a  more  pronounced  reversion  to  a  non-invidious 
temperament  than  the  men.  But  there  is  also  among 
men  of  the  leisure  class  a  perceptible  increase  in  the 
range  and  scope  of  activities  that  proceed  from  apti- 


Survivals  of  the  Non-invidious  Interest  339 

tucles  which  are  not  to  be  classed  as  self-regarding, 
and  the  end  of  which  is  not  an  invidious  distinction. 
So,  for  instance,  the  greater  number  of  men  who  have 
to  do  with  industry  in  the  way  of  pecuniarily  managing 
an  enterprise,  take  some  interest  and  some  pride  in 
seeing  that  the  work  is  well  done  and  is  industrially 
effective,  and  this  even  apart  from  the  profit  which 
may  result  from  any  improvement  of  this  kind.  The 
efforts  of  commercial  clubs  and  manufacturers’  organi¬ 
sations  in  this  direction  of  non-invidious  advancement 
of  industrial  efficiency  are  also  well  known. 

The  tendency  to  some  other  than  an  invidious  pur¬ 
pose  in  life  has  worked  out  in  a  multitude  of  organisa¬ 
tions,  the  purpose  of  which  is  some  work  of  charity 
or  of  social  amelioration.  These  organisations  are  often 
of  a  quasi-religious  or  pseudo-religious  character,  and  are 
participated  in  by  both  men  and  women.  Examples 
will  present  themselves  in  abundance  on  reflection,  but 
for  the  purpose  of  indicating  the  range  of  the  propensi¬ 
ties  in  question  and  of  characterising  them,  some  of 
the  more  obvious  concrete  cases  may  be  cited.  Such, 
for  instance,  are  the  agitation  for  temperance  and  simi¬ 
lar  social  reforms,  for  prison  reform,  for  the  spread 
of  education,  for  the  suppression  of  vice*  and  for  the 
avoidance  of  war  by  arbitration,  disarmament,  or  other 
means ;  such  are,  in  some  measure,  university  settle¬ 
ments,  neighbourhood  guilds,  the  various  organisations 
typified  by  the  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association 
and  the  Young  People’s  Society  for  Christian  Endeav¬ 
our,  sewing-circles,  social  clubs,  art  clubs,  and  even  com¬ 
mercial  clubs  ;  such  are  also,  in  some  slight  measure, 


340  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

the  pecuniary  foundations  of  semi-public  establishments 
for  charity,  education,  or  amusement,  whether  they  are 
endowed  by  wealthy  individuals  or  by  contributions 
collected  from  persons  of  smaller  means  —  in  so  far  as 
these  establishments  are  not  of  a  religious  character. 

It  is  of  course  not  intended  to  say  that  these  efforts 
proceed  entirely  from  other  motives  than  those  of  a 
self-regarding  kind.  What  can  be  claimed  is  that  other 
motives  are  present  in  the  common  run  of  cases,  and 
that  the  perceptibly  greater  prevalence  of  effort  of  this 
kind  under  the  circumstances  of  the  modern  industrial 
life  than  under  the  unbroken  regime  of  the  principle 
of  status,  indicates  the  presence  in  modern  life  of  an 
effective  scepticism  with  respect  to  the  full  legitimacy 
of  an  emulative  scheme  of  life.  It  is  a  matter  of  suffi¬ 
cient  notoriety  to  have  become  a  commonplace  jest 
that  extraneous  motives  are  commonly  present  among 
the  incentives  to  this  class  of  work  —  motives  of  a  self- 
regarding  kind,  and  especially  the  motive  of  an  in¬ 
vidious  distinction.  To  such  an  extent  is  this  true, 
that  many  ostensible  works  of  disinterested  public  spirit 
are  no  doubt  initiated  and  carried  on  with  a  view  pri¬ 
marily  to  the  enhanced  repute,  or  even  to  the  pecuniary 
gain,  of  their  promoters.  In  the  case  of  some  consid¬ 
erable  groups  of  organisations  or  establishments  of  this 
kind  the  invidious  motive  is  apparently  the  dominant 
motive  both  with  the  initiators  of  the  work  and  with 
their  supporters.  This  last  remark  would  hold  true 
especially  with  respect  to  such  works  as  lend  distinction 
to  their  doer  through  large  and  conspicuous  expendi¬ 
ture  ;  as,  for  example,  the  foundation  of  a  university  or 


Survivals  of  the  Non-Invidious  Interest  341 

of  a  public  library  or  museum  ;  but  it  is  also,  and  per¬ 
haps  equally,  true  of  the  more  commonplace  work  of 
participation  in  such  organisations  and  movements  as 
are  distinctively  upper-class  organisations.  These  serve 
to  authenticate  the  pecuniary  reputability  of  their  mem¬ 
bers,  as  well  as  gratefully  to  keep  them  in  mind  of 
their  superior  status  by  pointing  the  contrast  between 
themselves  and  the  lower-lying  humanity  in  whom  the 
work  of  amelioration  is  to  be  wrought ;  as,  for  example, 
the  university  settlement,  which  now  has  some  vogue. 
But  after  all  allowances  and  deductions  have  been 
made,  there  is  left  some  remainder  of  motives  of  a  non- 
emulative  kind.  The  fact  itself  that  distinction  or  a 
decent  good  fame  is  sought  by  this  method  is  evidence 
of  a  prevalent  sense  of  the  legitimacy,  and  of  the  pre¬ 
sumptive  effectual  presence,  of  a  non-emulative,  non- 
invidious  interest,  as  a  constituent  factor  in  the  habits 
of  thought  of  modern  communities. 

In  all  this  latter-day  range  of  leisure-class  activities 
that  proceed  on  the  basis  of  a  non-invidious  and  non¬ 
religious  interest,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  women 
participate  more  actively  and  more  persistently  than 
the  men  —  except,  of  course,  in  the  case  of  such  works 
as  require  a  large  expenditure  of  means.  The  dependent 
pecuniary  position  of  the  women  disables  them  for 
work  requiring  large  expenditure.  As  regards  the 
general  range  of  ameliorative  work,  the  members  of  the 
priesthood  or  clergy  of  the  less  naively  devout  sects,  or 
the  secularised  denominations,  are  associated  with  the 
class  of  the  women.  This  is  as  the  theory  would  have 
it.  In  other  economic  relations,  also,  this  clergy  stands 


342  The  Theory  of  the  Leisitre  Class 

in  a  somewhat  equivocal  position  between  the  class  of 
women  and  that  of  the  men  engaged  in  economic  pur¬ 
suits.  By  tradition  and  by  the  prevalent  sense  of  the 
proprieties,  both  the  clergy  and  the  women  of  the  well- 
to-do  classes  are  placed  in  the  position  of  a  vicarious 
leisure  class  ;  with  both  classes  the  characteristic  rela¬ 
tion  which  goes  to  form  the  habits  of  thought  of  the 
class  is  a  relation  of  subservience  —  that  is  to  say,  an 
economic  relation  conceived  in  personal  terms  ;  in  both 
classes  there  is  consequently  perceptible  a  special 
proneness  to  construe  phenomena  in  terms  of  personal 
relation  rather  than  of  causal  sequence  ;  both  classes 
are  so  inhibited  by  the  canons  of  decency  from  the 
ceremonially  unclean  processes  of  the  lucrative  or  pro¬ 
ductive  occupations  as  to  make  participation  in  the 
industrial  life  process  of  to-day  a  moral  impossibility 
for  them.  The  result  of  this  ceremonial  exclusion  from 
productive  effort  of  the  vulgar  sort  is  to  draft  a  rela¬ 
tively  large  share  of  the  energies  of  the  modern  femi¬ 
nine  and  priestly  classes  into  the  service  of  other 
interests  than  the  self-regarding  one.  The  code  leaves 
no  alternative  direction  in  which  the  impulse  to  pur¬ 
poseful  action  may  find  expression.  The  effect  of 
a  consistent  inhibition  on  industrially  useful  activity 
in  the  case  of  the  leisure-class  women  shows  itself  in 
a  restless  assertion  of  the  impulse  to  workmanship  in 
other  directions  than  that  of  business  activity. 

As  has  been  noticed  already,  the  everyday  life  of 
the  well-to-do  women  and  the  clergy  contains  a  larger 
element  of  status  than  that  of  the  average  of  the  men, 
especially  than  that  of  the  men  engaged  in  the  modern 


Survivals  of  the  Non-Invidious  Interest  343 

industrial  occupations  proper.  Hence  the  devout  atti¬ 
tude  survives  in  a  better  state  of  preservation  among 
these  classes  than  among  the  common  run  of  men  in 
the  modern  communities.  Hence  an  appreciable  share 
of  the  energy  which  seeks  expression  in  a  non-lucrative 
employment  among  these  members  of  the  vicarious 
leisure  classes  may  be  expected  to  eventuate  in  devout 
observances  and  works  of  piety.  Hence,  in  part,  the 
excess  of  the  devout  proclivity  in  women,  spoken  of  in 
the  last  chapter.  But  it  is  more  to  the  present  point 
to  note  the  effect  of  this  proclivity  in  shaping  the 
action  and  colouring  the  purposes  of  the  non-lucrative 
movements  and  organisations  here  under  discussion. 
Where  this  devout  colouring  is  present  it  lowers  the 
immediate  efficiency  of  the  organisations  for  any  eco¬ 
nomic  end  to  which  their  efforts  may  be  directed. 
Many  organisations,  charitable  and  ameliorative,  divide 
their  attention  between  the  devotional  and  the  secular 
well-being  of  the  people  whose  interests  they  aim  to 
further.  It  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  if  they  were 
to  give  an  equally  serious  attention  and  effort  undi- 
videdly  to  the  secular  interests  of  these  people,  the 
immediate  economic  value  of  their  work  should  be 
appreciably  higher  than  it  is.  It  might  of  course  simi¬ 
larly  be  said,  if  this  were  the  place  to  say  it,  that  the 
immediate  efficiency  of  these  works  of  amelioration  for 
the  devout  end  might  be  greater  if  it  were  not  ham¬ 
pered  with  the  secular  motives  and  aims  which  are 
usually  present. 

Some  deduction  is  to  be  made  from  the  economic 
value  of  this  class  of  non-invidious  enterprise,  on 


344  7 he  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

account  of  the  intrusion  of  the  devotional  interest. 
But  there  are  also  deductions  to  be  made  on  account 
of  the  presence  of  other  alien  motives  which  more  or 
less  broadly  traverse  the  economic  trend  of  this  non- 
emulative  expression  of  the  instinct  of  workmanship. 
To  such  an  extent  is  this  seen  to  be  true  on  a  closer 
scrutiny,  that,  when  all  is  told,  it  may  even  appear 
that  this  general  class  of  enterprises  is  of  an  altogether 
dubious  economic  value  —  as  measured  in  terms  of  the 
fulness  or  facility  of  life  of  the  individuals  or  classes 
to  whose  amelioration  the  enterprise  is  directed.  For 
instance,  many  of  the  efforts  now  in  reputable  vogue 
for  the  amelioration  of  the  indigent  population  of  large 
cities  are  of  the  nature,  in  great  part,  of  a  mission  of 
culture.  It  is  by  this  means  sought  to  accelerate  the 
rate  of  speed  at  which  given  elements  of  the  upper- 
class  culture  find  acceptance  in  the  everyday  scheme 
of  life  of  the  lower  classes.  The  solicitude  of  “settle¬ 
ments,”  for  example,  is  in  part  directed  to  enhance  the 
industrial  efficiency  of  the  poor  and  to  teach  them  the 
more  adequate  utilisation  of  the  means  at  hand  ;  but 
it  is  also  no  less  consistently  directed  to  the  incul¬ 
cation,  by  precept  and  example,  of  certain  punctilios 
of  upper-class  propriety  in  manners  and  customs.  The 
economic  substance  of  these  proprieties  will  commonly 
be  found  on  scrutiny  to  be  a  conspicuous  waste  of  time 
and  goods.  Those  good  people  who  go  out  to  humanise 
the  poor  are  commonly,  and  advisedly,  extremely  scru¬ 
pulous  and  silently  insistent  in  matters  of  decorum  and 
the  decencies  of  life.  They  are  commonly  persons  of 
an  exemplary  life  and  gifted  with  a  tenacious  insistence 


Survivals  of  the  Non-Invidious  Interest  345 

on  ceremonial  cleanness  in  the  various  items  of  their 
daily  consumption.  The  cultural  or  civilising  efficacy 
of  this  inculcation  of  correct  habits  of  thought  with 
respect  to  the  consumption  of  time  and  commodities 
is  scarcely  to  be  overrated  ;  nor  is  its  economic  value 
to  the  individual  who  acquires  these  higher  and  more 
reputable  ideals  inconsiderable.  Under  the  circum¬ 
stances  of  the  existing  pecuniary  culture,  the  reputa¬ 
bility,  and  consequently  the  success,  of  the  individual 
is  in  great  measure  dependent  on  his  proficiency  in 
demeanour  and  methods  of  consumption  that  argue 
habitual  waste  of  time  and  goods.  But  as  regards  the 
ulterior  economic  bearing  of  this  training  in  worthier 
methods  of  life,  it  is  to  be  said  that  the  effect  wrought 
is  in  large  part  a  substitution  of  costlier  or  less  efficient 
methods  of  accomplishing  the  same  material  results, 
in  relations  where  the  material  result  is  the  fact  of 
substantial  economic  value.  The  propaganda  of  cul¬ 
ture  is  in  great  part  an  inculcation  of  new  tastes,  or 
rather  of  a  new  schedule  of  proprieties,  which  have 
been  adapted  to  the  upper-class  scheme  of  life  under 
the  guidance  of  the  leisure-class  formulation  of  the 
principles  of  status  and  pecuniary  decency.  This  new 
schedule  of  proprieties  is  intruded  into  the  lower-class 
scheme  of  life  from  the  code  elaborated  by  an  ele¬ 
ment  of  the  population  whose  life  lies  outside  the 
industrial  process ;  and  this  intrusive  schedule  can 
scarcely  be  expected  to  fit  the  exigencies  of  life  for 
these  lower  classes  more  adequately  than  the  schedule 
already  in  vogue  among  them,  and  especially  not  more 
adequately  than  the  schedule  which  they  are  them- 


346  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

selves  working  out  under  the  stress  of  modern  indus¬ 
trial  life. 

All  this  of  course  does  not  question  the  fact  that  the 
proprieties  of  the  substituted  schedule  are  more  deco¬ 
rous  than  those  which  they  displace.  The  doubt  which 
presents  itself  is  simply  a  doubt  as  to  the  economic 
expediency  of  this  work  of  regeneration  —  that  is  to 
say,  the  economic  expediency  in  that  immediate  and  ' 
material  bearing  in  which  the  effects  of  the  change  can 
be  ascertained  with  some  degree  of  confidence,  and  as 
viewed  from  the  standpoint  not  of  the  individual  but  of 
the  facility  of  life  of  the  collectivity.  For  an  apprecia¬ 
tion  of  the  economic  expediency  of  these  enterprises  of 
amelioration,  therefore,  their  effective  work  is  scarcely 
to  be  taken  at  its  face  value,  even  where  the  aim  of  the 
enterprise  is  primarily  an  economic  one  and  where  the 
interest  on  which  it  proceeds  is  in  no  sense  self-regard¬ 
ing  or  invidious.  The  economic  reform  wrought  is 
largely  of  the  nature  of  a  permutation  in  the  methods  of 
conspicuous  waste. 

But  something  further  is  to  be  said  with  respect 
to  the  character  of  the  disinterested  motives  and 
canons  of  procedure  in  all  work  of  this  class  that 
is  affected  by  the  habits  of  thought  characteristic  of 
the  pecuniary  culture ;  and  this  further  considera¬ 
tion  may  lead  to  a  further  qualification  of  the  con¬ 
clusions  already  reached.  As  has  been  seen  in  an 
earlier  chapter,  the  canons  of  reputability  or  decency 
under  the  pecuniary  culture  insist  on  habitual  futility  of 
effort  as  the  mark  of  a  pecuniarily  blameless  life. 
There  results  not  only  a  habit  of  disesteem  of  useful 


Survivals  of  the  Non-Invidious  Interest  347 

occupations,  but  there  results  also  what  is  of  more  deci¬ 
sive  consequence  in  guiding  the  action  of  any  organised 
body  of  people  that  lays  claim  to  social  good  repute. 
There  is  a  tradition  which  requires  that  one  should  not 
be  vulgarly  familiar  with  any  of  the  processes  or  details 
that  have  to  do  with  the  material  necessities  of  life. 
One  may  meritoriously  show  a  quantitative  interest  in 
the  well-being  of  the  vulgar,  through  subscriptions  or 
through  work  on  managing  committees  and  the  like. 
One  may,  perhaps  even  more  meritoriously,  show  solici¬ 
tude  in  general  and  in  detail  for  the  cultural  welfare  of 
the  vulgar,  in  the  way  of  contrivances  for  elevating  their 
tastes  and  affording  them  opportunities  for  spiritual 
amelioration.  But  one  should  not  betray  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  material  circumstances  of  vulgar  life, 
or  of  the  habits  of  thought  of  the  vulgar  classes,  such 
as  would  effectually  direct  the  efforts  of  these  organisa¬ 
tions  to  a  materially  useful  end.  '  This  reluctance  to 
avow  an  unduly  intimate  knowledge  of  the  lower-class 
conditions  of  life  in  detail  of  course  prevails  in  very 
different  degrees  in  different  individuals  ;  but  there  is 
commonly  enough  of  it  present  collectively  in  any  or¬ 
ganisation  of  the  kind  in  question  profoundly  to  influ¬ 
ence  its  course  of  action.  By  its  cumulative  action  in 
shaping  the  usage  and  precedents  of  any  such  body, 
this  shrinking  from  an  imputation  of  unseemly  famili¬ 
arity  with  vulgar  life  tends  gradually  to  set  aside  the 
initial  motives  of  the  enterprise,  in  favour  of  certain 
guiding  principles  of  good  repute,  ultimately  reducible 
to  terms  of  pecuniary  merit.  So  that  in  an  organisa¬ 
tion  of  long  standing  the  initial  motive  of  furthering 


348  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

the  facility  of  life  in  these  classes  comes  gradually  to  be 
an  ostensible  motive  only,  and  the  vulgarly  effective 
work  of  the  organisation  tends  to  obsolescence. 

What  is  true  of  the  efficiency  of  organisations  for 
non-invidious  work  in  this  respect  is  true  also  as  regards 
the  work  of  individuals  proceeding  on  the  same  motives; 
though  it  perhaps  holds  true  with  more  qualification  for 
individuals  than  for  organised  enterprises.  The  habit 
of  gauging  merit  by  the  leisure-class  canons  of  wasteful 
expenditure  and  unfamiliarity  with  vulgar  life,  whether 
on  the  side  of  production  or  of  consumption,  is  necessa¬ 
rily  strong  in  the  individuals  who  aspire  to  do  some 
work  of  public  utility.  And  if  the  individual  should 
forget  his  station  and  turn  his  efforts  to  vulgar  effec¬ 
tiveness,  the  common  sense  of  the  community  —  the 
sense  of  pecuniary  decency  —  would  presently  reject 
his  work  and  set  him  right.  An  example  of  this  is 
seen  in  the  administration  of  bequests  made  by  public- 
spirited  men  for  the  single  purpose  (at  least  ostensibly) 
of  furthering  the  facility  of  human  life  in  some  particu¬ 
lar  respect.  The  objects  for  which  bequests  of  this 
class  are  most  frequently  made  at  present  are  schools, 
libraries,  hospitals,  and  asylums  for  the  infirm  or  unfor¬ 
tunate.  The  avowed  purpose  of  the  donor  in  these 
cases  is  the  amelioration  of  human  life  in  the  particular 
respect  which  is  named  in  the  bequest ;  but  it  will  be 
found  an  invariable  rule  that  in  the  execution  of  the 
work  not  a  little  of  other  motives,  frequently  incompati¬ 
ble  with  the  initial  motive,  is  present  and  determines 
the  particular  disposition  eventually  made  of  a  good 
share  of  the  means  which  have  been  set  apart  by  the 


Survivals  of  the  Non-Invidious  Interest  349 

bequest.  Certain  funds,  for  instance,  may  have  been 
set  apart  as  a  foundation  for  a  foundling  asylum  or  a 
retreat  for  invalids.  The  diversion  of  expenditure  to 
honorific  waste  in  such  cases  is  not  uncommon  enough  to 
cause  surprise  or  even  to  raise  a  smile.  An  apprecia¬ 
ble  share  of  the  funds  is  spent  in  construction  of  an 
edifice  faced  with  some  aesthetically  objectionable  but 
expensive  stone,  covered  with  grotesque  and  incongru¬ 
ous  details,  and  designed,  in  its  battlemented  walls  and 
turrets  and  its  massive  portals  and  strategic  approaches, 
to  suggest  certain  barbaric  methods  of  warfare.  The 
interior  of  the  structure  shows  the  same  pervasive 
guidance  of  the  canons  of  conspicuous  waste  and  pred¬ 
atory  exploit.  The  windows,  for  instance,  to  go  no 
farther  into  detail,  are  placed  with  a  view  to  impress 
their  pecuniary  excellence  upon  the  chance  beholder 
from  the  outside,  rather  than  with  a  view  to  effective¬ 
ness  for  their  ostensible  end  in  the  convenience  or  com¬ 
fort  of  the  beneficiaries  within  ;  and  the  detail  of  interior 
arrangement  is  required  to  conform  itself  as  best  it  may 
to  this  alien  but  imperious  requirement  of  pecuniary 
beauty. 

In  all  this,  of  course,  it  is  not  to  be  presumed  that 
the  donor  would  have  found  fault,  or  that  he  would  have 
done  otherwise  if  he  had  taken  control  in  person  ;  it 
appears  that  in  those  cases  where  such  a  personal  direc¬ 
tion  is  exercised  —  where  the  enterprise  is  conducted  by 
direct  expenditure  and  superintendence  instead  of  by 
bequest  —  the  aims  and  methods  of  management  are 
not  different  in  this  respect.  Nor  would  the  benefici¬ 
aries,  or  the  outside  observers  whose  ease  or  vanity  are 


350  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

not  immediately  touched,  be  pleased  with  a  different  dis¬ 
position  of  the  funds.  It  would  suit  no  one  to  have  the 
enterprise  conducted  with  a  view  directly  to  the  most 
economical  and  effective  use  of  the  means  at  hand 
for  the  initial,  material  end  of  the  foundation.  All 
concerned,  whether  their  interest  is  immediate  and 
self-regarding,  or  contemplative  only,  agree  that  some 
considerable  share  of  the  expenditure  should  go  to 
the  higher  or  spiritual  needs  derived  from  the  habit 
of  an  invidious  comparison  in  predatory  exploit  and 
pecuniary  waste.  But  this  only  goes  to  say  that  the 
canons  of  emulative  and  pecuniary’ reputability  so  far 
pervade  the  common  sense  of  the  community  as  to 
permit  no  escape  or  evasion,  even  in  the  case  of  an 
enterprise  which  ostensibly  proceeds  entirely  on  the 
basis  of  a  non-invidious  interest. 

It  may  even  be  that  the  enterprise  owes  its  honorific 
virtue,  as  a  means  of  enhancing  the  donor’s  good  repute, 
to  the  imputed  presence  of  this  non-invidious  motive  ; 
but  that  does  not  hinder  the  invidious  interest  from 
guiding  the  expenditure.  The  effectual  presence  of 
motives  of  an  emulative  or  invidious  origin  in  n on-emu¬ 
lative  works  of  this  kind  might  be  shown  at  length  and 
with  detail,  in  any  one  of  the  classes  of  enterprise 
spoken  of  above.  Where  these  honorific  details  occur, 
in  such  cases,  they  commonly  masquerade  under  desig¬ 
nations  that  belong  in  the  field  of  the  aesthetic,  ethical, 
or  economic  interest.  These  special  motives,  derived 
from  the  standards  and  canons  of  the  pecuniary  culture, 
act  surreptitiously  to  divert  effort  of  a  non-invidious 
kind  from  effective  service,  without  disturbing  the 


Survivals  of  the  Dion-Invidious  Interest  351 

agent’s  sense  of  good  intention  or  obtruding  upon  his 
consciousness  the  substantial  futility  of  his  work.  Their 
effect  might  be  traced  through  the  entire  range  of  that 
schedule  of  non-invidious,  meliorative  enterprise  that  is 
so  considerable  a  feature,  and  especially  so  conspicuous 
a  feature,  in  the  overt  scheme  of  life  of  the  well-to-do. 
But  the  theoretical  bearing  is  perhaps  clear  enough  and 
may  require  no  further  illustration  ;  especially  as  some 
detailed  attention  will  be  given  to  one  of  these  lines  of 
enterprise  —  the  establishments  for  the  higher  learning 
—  in  another  connection. 

Under  the  circumstances  of  the  sheltered  situation 
in  which  the  leisure  class  is  placed  there  seems,  there¬ 
fore,  to  be  something  of  a  reversion  to  the  range  of 
non-invidious  impulses  that  characterise  the  ante-preda¬ 
tory  savage  culture.  The  reversion  comprises  both  the 
sense  of  workmanship  and  the  proclivity  to  indolence 
and  good-fellowship.  But  in  the  modern  scheme  of  life 
canons  of  conduct  based  on  pecuniary  or  invidious 
merit  stand  in  the  way  of  a  free  exercise  of  these 
impulses  ;  and  the  dominant  presence  of  these  canons 
of  conduct  goes  far  to  divert  such  efforts  as  are  made 
on  the  basis  of  the  non-invidious  interest  to  the  service 
of  that  invidious  interest  on  which  the  pecuniary  culture 
rests.  The  canons  of  pecuniary  decency  are  reducible 
for  the  present  purpose  to  the  principles  of  waste,  futil¬ 
ity,  and  ferocity.  The  requirements  of  decency  are 
imperiously  present  in  meliorative  enterprise  as  in 
other  lines  of  conduct,  and  exercise  a  selective  surveil¬ 
lance  over  the  details  of  conduct  and  management  in 
any  enterprise.  By  guiding  and  adapting  the  method 


352  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

in  detail,  these  canons  of  decency  go  far  to  make  all 
non-invidious  aspiration  or  effort  nugatory.  The  per¬ 
vasive,  impersonal,  un-eager  principle  of  futility  is  at 
hand  from  day  to  day  and  works  obstructively  to  hinder 
the  effectual  expression  of  so  much  of  the  surviving 
ante-predatory  aptitudes  as  is  to  be  classed  under  the 
instinct  of  workmanship ;  but  its  presence  does  not 
preclude  the  transmission  of  those  aptitudes  or  the  con¬ 
tinued  recurrence  of  an  impulse  to  find  expression  for 
them. 

In  the  later  and  farther  development  of  the  pecuniary 
culture,  the  requirement  of  withdrawal  from  the  indus¬ 
trial  process  in  order  to  avoid  social  odium  is  carried  so 
far  as  to  comprise  abstention  from  thovemulative  em¬ 
ployments.  At  this  advanced  stage  the  pecuniary  cul¬ 
ture  negatively  favours  the  assertion  of  the  non-invidious 
propensities  by  relaxing  the  stress  laid  on  the  merit  of 
emulative,  predatory,  or  pecuniary  occupations,  as  com¬ 
pared  with  those  of  an  industrial  or  productive  kind. 
As  was  noticed  above,  the  requirement  of  such  with¬ 
drawal  from  all  employment  that  is  of  human  use  applies 
more  rigorously  to  the  upper-class  women  than  to  any 
other  class,  unless  the  priesthood  of  certain  cults  might 
be  cited  as  an  exception,  perhaps  more  apparent  than 
real,  to  this  rule.  The  reason  for  the  more  extreme  in¬ 
sistence  on  a  futile  life  for  this  class  of  women  than  for 
the  men  of  the  same  pecuniary  and  social  grade  lies  in 
their  being  not  only  an  upper-grade  leisure  class  but 
also  at  the  same  time  a  vicarious  leisure  class.  There 
is  in  their  case  a  double  ground  for  a  consistent  with¬ 
drawal  from  useful  effort. 


Survivals  of  the  Non-Invidious  Interest  353 

It  has  been  well  and  repeatedly  said  by  popular 
writers  and  speakers  who  reflect  the  common  sense  of 
intelligent  people  on  questions  of  social  structure  and 
function  that  the  position  of  woman  in  any  community 
is  the  most  striking  index  of  the  level  of  culture  attained 
by  the  community,  and  it  might  be  added,  by  any  given 
class  in  the  community.  This  remark  is  perhaps  truer 
as  regards  the  stage  of  economic  development  than  as 
regards  development  in  any  other  respect.  At  the  same 
time  the  position  assigned  to  the  woman  in  the  accepted 
scheme  of  life,  in  any  community  or  under  any  culture,  is 
in  a  very  great  degree  an  expression  of  traditions  which 
have  been  shaped  by  the  circumstances  of  an  earlier 
phase  of  development,  and  which  have  been  but  par¬ 
tially  adapted  to  the  existing  economic  circumstances, 
or  to  the  existing  exigencies  of  temperament  and  habits 
of  mind  by  which  the  women  living  under  this  modern 
economic  situation  are  actuated. 

The  fact  has  already  been  remarked  upon  incidentally 
in  the  course  of  the  discussion  of  the  growth  of  economic 
institutions  generally,  and  in  particular  in  speaking  of 
vicarious  leisure  and  of  dress,  that  the  position  of 
women  in  the  modern  economic  scheme  is  more  widely 
and  more  consistently  at  variance  with  the  promptings 
of  the  instinct  of  workmanship  than  is  the  position  of 
the  men  of  the  same  classes.  It  is  also  apparently  true 
that  the  woman’s  temperament  includes  a  larger  share 
of.  this  instinct  that  approves  peace  and  disapproves 
futility.  It  is  therefore  not  a  fortuitous  circumstance 
that  the  women  of  modern  industrial  communities  show 
a  livelier  sense  of  the  discrepancy  between  the  accepted 


354  7 lie  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

scheme  of  life  and  the  exigencies  of  the  economic 
situation. 

The  several  phases  of  the  “woman  question”  have 
brought  out  in  intelligible  form  the  extent  to  which  the 
life  of  women  in  modern  society,  and  in  the  polite 
circles  especially,  is  regulated  by  a  body  of  common 
sense  formulated  under  the  economic  circumstances  of 
an  earlier  phase  of  development.  It  is  still  felt  that 
woman’s  life,  in  its  civil,  economic,  and  social  bearing,  is 
essentially  and  normally  a  vicarious  life,  the  merit  or 
demerit  of  which  is,  in  the  nature  of  things,  to  be  im¬ 
puted  to  some  other  individual  who  stands  in  some 
relation  of  ownership  or  tutelage  to  the  woman.  So, 
for  instance,  any  action  on  the  part  of  a  woman  which 
traverses  an  injunction  of  the  accepted  schedule  of  pro¬ 
prieties  is  felt  to  reflect  immediately  upon  the  honour 
of  the  man  whose  woman  she  is.  There  may  of  course 
be  some  sense  of  incongruity  in  the  mind  of  any  one 
passing  an  opinion  of  this  kind  on  the  woman’s  frailty 
or  perversity;  but  the  common-sense  judgment  of  the 
community  in  such  matters  is,  after  all,  delivered  with¬ 
out  much  hesitation,  and  few  men  would  question  the 
legitimacy  of  their  sense  of  an  outraged  tutelage  in 
any  case  that  might  arise.  On  the  other  hand,  rela¬ 
tively  little  discredit  attaches  to  a  woman  through  the 
evil  deeds  of  the  man  with  whom  her  life  is  associated. 

The  good  and  beautiful  scheme  of  life,  then  —  that  is 
to  say  the  scheme  to  which  we  are  habituated  — assigns 
to  the  woman  a  “sphere  ”  ancillary  to  the  activity  of  the 
man  ;  and  it  is  felt  that  any  departure  from  the  tradi¬ 
tions  of  her  assigned  round  of  duties  is  unwomanly.  If 


Survivals  of  the  Non-Invidious  Interest  355 

the  question  is  as  to  civil  rights  or  the  suffrage,  our 
common  sense  in  the  matter  —  that  is  to  say  the  logical 
deliverance  of  our  general  scheme  of  life  upon  the  point 
in  question  —  says  that  the  woman  should  be  repre¬ 
sented  in  the  body  politic  and  before  the  law,  not  im¬ 
mediately  in  her  own  person,  but  through  the  mediation 
of  the  head  of  the  household  to  which  she  belongs.  It 
is  unfeminine  in  her  to  aspire  to  a  self-directing,  self- 
centred  life ;  and  our  common  sense  tells  us  that  her 
direct  participation  in  the  affairs  of  the  community, 
civil  or  industrial,  is  a  menace  to  that  social  order 
which  expresses  our  habits  of  thought  as  they  have 
been  formed  under  the  guidance  of  the  traditions  of 
the  pecuniary  culture.  “  All  this  fume  and  froth  of 
‘emancipating  woman  from  the  slavery  of  man’  and  so 
on,  is,  to  use  the  chaste  and  expressive  language  of 
Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  inversely,  ‘utter  rot.’  The 
social  relations  of  the  sexes  are  fixed  by  nature.  Our 
entire  civilisation  —  that  is  whatever  is  good  in  it — -is 
based  on  the  home.”  The  “home”  is  the  household 
with  a  male  head.  This  view,  but  commonly  expressed 
even  more  chastely,  is  the  prevailing  view  of  the  woman’s 
status,  not  only  among  the  common  run  of  the  men  of 
civilised  communities,  but  among  the  women  as  well. 
Women  have  a  very  alert  sense  of  what  the  scheme  of 
proprieties  requires,  and  while  it  is  true  that  many  of 
them  are  ill  at  ease  under  the  details  which  the  code 
imposes,  there  are  few  who  do  not  recognise  that  the 
existing  moral  order,  of  necessity  and  by  the  divine 
right  of  prescription,  places  the  woman  in  a  position 
ancillary  to  the  man.  In  the  last  analysis,  according 


356  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

to  her  own  sense  of  what  is  good  and  beautiful,  the 
woman’s  life  is,  and  in  theory  must  be,  an  expression  of 
the  man’s  life  at  the  second  remove. 

But  in  spite  of  this  pervading  sense  of  what  is  the 
good  and  natural  place  for  the  woman,  there  is  also  per¬ 
ceptible  an  incipient  development  of  sentiment  to  the 
effect  that  this  whole  arrangement  of  tutelage  and 
vicarious  life  and  imputation  of  merit  and  demerit  is 
somehow  a  mistake.  Or,  at  least,  that  even  if  it  may 
be  a  natural  growth  and  a  good  arrangement  in  its  time 
and  place,  and  in  spite  of  its  patent  aesthetic  value,  still 
it  does  not  adequately  serve  the  more  everyday  ends  of 
life  in  a  modern  industrial  community.  Even  that  large 
and  substantial  body  of  well-bred,  upper  and  middle-class 
women  to  whose  dispassionate,  matronly  sense  of  the 
traditional  proprieties  this  relation  of  status  commends 
itself  as  fundamentally  and  eternally  right  —  even  these, 
whose  attitude  is  conservative,  commonly  find  some 
slight  discrepancy  in  detail  between  things  as  they  are 
and  as  they  should  be  in  this  respect.  But  that  less 
manageable  body  of  modern  women  who,  by  force  of 
youth,  education,  or  temperament,  are  in  some  degree 
out  of  touch  with  the  traditions  of  status  received  from 
the  barbarian  culture,  and  in  whom  there  is,  perhaps,  an 
undue  reversion  to  the  impulse  of  self-expression  and 
workmanship,  —  these  are  touched  with  a  sense  of 
grievance  too  vivid  to  leave  them  at  rest. 

In  this  “New-Woman”  movement,  —  as  these  blind 
and  incoherent  efforts  to  rehabilitate  the  woman’s  pre-gla¬ 
cial  standing  have  been  named,  — there  are  at  least  two 
elements  discernible,  both  of  which  are  of  an  economic 


Survivals  of  the  Non-Invidious  Int ere st  357 

character.  These  two  elements  or  motives  are  ex¬ 
pressed  by  the  double  watchword,  “Emancipation”  and 
“Work.”  Each  of  these  words  is  recognised  to  stand 
for  something  in  the  way  of  a  wide-spread  sense  of 
grievance.  The  prevalence  of  the  sentiment  is  recog¬ 
nised  even  by  people  who  do  not  see  that  there  is  any 
real  ground  for  a  grievance  in  the  situation  as  it  stands 
to-day.  It  is  among  the  women  of  the  well-to-do  classes, 
in  the  communities  which  are  farthest  advanced  in 
industrial  development,  that  this  sense  of  a  grievance 
to  be  redressed  is  most  alive  and  finds  most  frequent 
expression.  That  is  to  say,  in  other  words,  there  is  a 
demand,  more  or  less  serious,  for  emancipation  from  all 
relation  of  status,  tutelage,  or  vicarious  life  ;  and  the 
revulsion  asserts  itself  especially  among  the  class  of 
women  upon  whom  the  scheme  of  life  handed  down 
from  the  regime  of  status  imposes  with  least  mitigation 
a  vicarious  life,  and  in  those  communities  whose  eco¬ 
nomic  development  has  departed  farthest  from  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  to  which  this  traditional  scheme  is  adapted. 
The  demand  comes  from  that  portion  of  womankind 
which  is  excluded  by  the  canons  of  good  repute  from 
all  effectual  work,  and  which  is  closely  reserved  for  a 
life  of  leisure  and  conspicuous  consumption. 

More  than  one  critic  of  this  new-woman  movement 
has  misapprehended  its  motive.  The  case  of  the  Amer¬ 
ican  “new  woman”  has  lately  been  summed  up  with 
some  warmth  by  a  popular  observer  of  social  phenom¬ 
ena  :  “She  is  petted  by  her  husband,  the  most  devoted 
and  hard-working  of  husbands  in  the  world.  .  .  .  She 
is  the  superior  of  her  husband  in  education,  and  in 


358  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

almost  every  respect.  She  is  surrounded  by  the  most 
numerous  and  delicate  attentions.  Yet  she  is  not  satis¬ 
fied.  .  .  .  The  Anglo-Saxon  *  new  woman  ’  is  the  most 
ridiculous  production  of  modern  times,  and  destined  to 
be  the  most  ghastly  failure  of  the  century.”  Apart 
from  the  deprecation  —  perhaps  well  placed  —  which  is 
contained  in  this  presentment,  it  adds  nothing  but 
obscurity  to  the  woman  question.  The  grievance  of 
the  new  woman  is  made  up  of  those  things  which  this 
typical  characterisation  of  the  movement  urges  as 
reasons  why  she  should  be  content.  She  is  petted,  and 
is  permitted,  or  even  required,  to  consume  largely  and 
conspicuously  —  vicariously  for  her  husband  or  other 
natural  guardian.  She  is  exempted,  or  debarred,  from 
vulgarly  useful  employment  —  in  order  to  perform 
leisure  vicariously  for  the  good  repute  of  her  natural 
(pecuniary)  guardian.  These  offices  are  the  conven¬ 
tional  marks  of  the  un-free,  at  the  same  time  that  they 
are  incompatible  with  the  human  impulse  to  purposeful 
activity.  But  the  woman  is  endowed  with  her  share  — 
which  there  is  reason  to  believe  is  more  than  an  even 
share  —  of  the  instinct  of  workmanship,  to  which 
futility  of  life  or  of  expenditure  is  obnoxious.  She 
must  unfold  her  life  activity  in  response  to  the  direct, 
unmediated  stimuli  of  the  economic  environment  with 
which  she  is  in  contact.  The  impulse  is  perhaps 
stronger  upon  the  woman  than  upon  the  man  to  live 
her  own  life  in  her  own  way  and  to  enter  the  industrial 
process  of  the  community  at  something  nearer  than  the 
second  remove. 

So  long  as  the  woman’s  place  is  consistently  that  of  a 


Survivals  of  the  Non-Invidious  Interest  359 

drudge,  she  is,  in  the  average  of  cases,  fairly  contented 
with  her  lot.  She  not  only  has  something  tangible  and 
purposeful  to  do,  but  she  has  also  no  time  or  thought 
to  spare  for  a  rebellious  assertion  of  such  human  pro¬ 
pensity  to  self-direction  as  she  has  inherited.  And 
after  the  stage  of  universal  female  drudgery  is  passed, 
and  a  vicarious  leisure  without  strenuous  application 
becomes  the  accredited  employment  of  the  women  of 
the  well-to-do  classes,  the  prescriptive  force  of  the  canon 
of  pecuniary  decency,  which  requires  the  observance  of 
ceremonial  futility  on  their  part,  will  long  preserve  high- 
minded  women  from  any  sentimental  leaning  to  self- 
direction  and  a  “sphere  of  usefulness.”  This  is  espe¬ 
cially  true  during  the  earlier  phases  of  the  pecuniary 
culture,  while  the  leisure  of  the  leisure  class  is  still  in 
great  measure  a  predatory  activity,  an  active  assertion 
of  mastery  in  which  there  is  enough  of  tangible  purpose 
of  an  invidious  kind  to  admit  of  its  being  taken  seri¬ 
ously  as  an  employment  to  which  one  may  without 
shame  put  one’s  hand.  This  condition  of  things  has 
obviously  lasted  well  down  into  the  present  in  some 
communities.  It  continues  to  hold  to  a  different  extent 
for  different  individuals,  varying  with  the  vividness  of 
the  sense  of  status  and  with  the  feebleness  of  the  im¬ 
pulse  to  workmanship  with  which  the  individual  is 
endowed.  But  where  the  economic  structure  of  the 
community  has  so  far  outgrown  the  scheme  of  life  based 
on  status  that  the  relation  of  personal  subservience  is 
no  longer  felt  to  be  the  sole  “natural  ”  human  relation ; 
there  the  ancient  habit  of  purposeful  activity  will  begin 
to  assert  itself  in  the  less  conformable  individuals, 


360  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

against  the  more  recent,  relatively  superficial,  relatively 
ephemeral  habits  and  views  which  the  predatory  and 
the  pecuniary  culture  have  contributed  to  our  scheme 
of  life.  These  habits  and  views  begin  to  lose  their 
coercive  force  for  the  community  or  the  class  in  ques¬ 
tion  so  soon  as  the  habit  of  mind  and  the  views  of  life 
due  to  the  predatory  and  the  quasi-peaceable  discipline 
cease  to  be  in  fairly  close  accord  with  the  later-developed 
economic  situation.  This  is  evident  in  the  case  of  the 
industrious  classes  of  modern  communities;  for  them 
the  leisure-class  scheme  of  life  has  lost  much  of  its 
binding  force,  especially  as  regards  the  element  of 
status.  But  it  is  also  visibly  being  verified  in  the 
case  of  the  upper  classes,  though  not  in  the  same 
manner. 

The  habits  derived  from  the  predatory  and  quasi- 
peaceable  culture  are  relatively  ephemeral  variants  of 
certain  underlying  propensities  and  mental  character¬ 
istics  of  the  race;  which  it  owes  to  the  protracted  dis¬ 
cipline  of  the  earlier,  proto-anthropoid  cultural  stage 
of  peaceable,  relatively  undifferentiated  economic  life 
carried  on  in  contact  with  a  relatively  simple  and  inva¬ 
riable  material  environment.  When  the  habits  superin¬ 
duced  by  the  emulative  method  of  life  have  ceased  to 
enjoy  the  sanction  of  existing  economic  exigencies,  a 
process  of  disintegration  sets  in  whereby  the  habits 
of  thought  of  more  recent  growth  and  of  a  less  generic 
character  to  some  extent  yield  the  ground  before  the 
more  ancient  and  more  pervading  spiritual  character¬ 
istics  of  the  race. 

In  a  sense,  then,  the  new-woman  movement  marks 


Survivals  of  the  Non-Invidious  Interest  361 

a  reversion  to  a  more  generic  type  of  human  character, 
or  to  a  less  differentiated  expression  of  human  nature. 
It  is  a  type  of  human  nature  which  is  to  be  character¬ 
ised  as  proto-anthropoid,  and,  as  regards  the  substance 
if  not  the  form  of  its  dominant  traits,  it  belongs  to  a 
cultural  stage  that  may  be  classed  as  possibly  sub¬ 
human.  The  particular  movement  or  evolutional  feat¬ 
ure  in  question  of  course  shares  this  characterisation 
with  the  rest  of  the  later  social  development,  in  so  far 
as  this  social  development  shows  evidence  of  a  rever¬ 
sion  to  the  spiritual  attitude  that  characterises  the 
earlier,  undifferentiated  stage  of  economic  evolution. 
Such  evidence  of  a  general  tendency  to  reversion  from 
the  dominance  of  the  invidious  interest  is  not  entirely 
wanting,  although  it  is  neither  plentiful  nor  unquestion¬ 
ably  convincing.  The  general  decay  of  the  sense  of 
status  in  modern  industrial  communities  goes  some  way 
as  evidence  in  this  direction;  and  the  perceptible  return 
to  a  disapproval  of  futility  in  human  life,  and  a  disap¬ 
proval  of  such  activities  as  serve  only  the  individual 
gain  at  the  cost  of  the  collectivity  or  at  the  cost  of 
other  social  groups,  is  evidence  to  a  like  effect.  There 
is  a  perceptible  tendency  to  deprecate  the  infliction  of 
pain,  as  well  as  to  discredit  all  marauding  enterprises, 
even  where  these  expressions  of  the  invidious  interest 
do  not  tangibly  work  to  the  material  detriment  of  the 
community  or  of  the  individual  who  passes  an  opinion 
on  them.  It  may  even  be  said  that  in  the  modern 
industrial  communities  the  average,  dispassionate  sense 
of  men  says  that  the  ideal  human  character  is  a  char¬ 
acter  which  makes  for  peace,  good-will,  and  economic 


a 

362  The  Theory  of  the  Leister e  Class 

efficiency,  rather  than  for  a  life  of  self-seeking,  force, 
fraud,  and  mastery. 

The  influence  of  the  leisure  class  is  not  consistently 
for  or  against  the  rehabilitation  of  this  proto-anthropoid 
human  nature.  So  far  as  concerns  the  chance  of  sur¬ 
vival  of  individuals  endowed  with  an  exceptionally  large 
share  of  the  primitive  traits,  the  sheltered  position  of 
the  class  favours  its  members  directly  by  withdrawing 
them  from  the  pecuniary  struggle ;  but  indirectly, 
through  the  leisure-class  canons  of  conspicuous  waste 
of  goods  and  effort,  the  institution  of  a  leisure  class  les¬ 
sens  the  chance  of  survival  of  such  individuals  in  the 
entire  body  of  the  population.  The  decent  require¬ 
ments  of  waste  absorb  the  surplus  energy  of  the  popu¬ 
lation  in  an  invidious  struggle  and  leave  no  margin  for 
the  non-invidious  expression  of  life.  The  remoter,  less 
tangible,  spiritual  effects  of  the  discipline  of  decency  go 
in  the  same  direction  and  work  perhaps  more  effectually 
to  the  same  end.  The  canons  of  decent  life  are  an 
elaboration  of  the  principle  of  invidious  comparison, 
and  they  accordingly  act  consistently  to  inhibit  all  non- 
invidious  effort  and  to  inculcate  the  self-regarding 
attitude. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


The  Higher  Learning  as  an  Expression  of  the 

Pecuniary  Culture 

To  the  end  that  suitable  habits  of  thought  on  cer¬ 
tain  heads  may  be  conserved  in  the  incoming  genera¬ 
tion,  a  scholastic  discipline  is  sanctioned  by  the  common 
sense  of  the  community  and  incorporated  into  the  ac¬ 
credited  scheme  of  life.  The  habits  of  thought  which 
are  so  formed  under  the  guidance  of  teachers  and  scho¬ 
lastic  traditions  have  an  economic  value  —  a  value  as 
affecting  the  serviceability  of  the  individual  —  no  less 
real  than  the  similar  economic  value  of  the  habits  of 
thought  formed  without  such  guidance  under  the  disci¬ 
pline  of  everyday  life.  Whatever  characteristics  of  the 
accredited  scholastic  scheme  and  discipline  are  traceable 
to  the  predilections  of  the  leisure  class  or  to  the  guid¬ 
ance  of  the  canons  of  pecuniary  merit  are  to  be  set 
down  to  the  account  of  that  institution,  and  whatever 
economic  value  these  features  of  the  educational  scheme 
possess  are  the  expression  in  detail  of  the  value  of  that 
institution.  It  will  be  in  place,  therefore,  to  point  out 
any  peculiar  features  of  the  educational  system  which 
are  traceable  to  the  leisure-class  scheme  of  life,  whether 
as  regards  the  aim  and  method  of  the  discipline,  or  as 
regards  the  compass  and  character  of  the  body  of 

363 


364  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

knowledge  inculcated.  It  is  in  learning  proper,  and 
more  particularly  in  the  higher  learning,  that  the  influ¬ 
ence  of  leisure-class  ideals  is  most  patent ;  and  since 
the  purpose  here  is  not  to  make  an  exhaustive  collation 
of  data  showing  the  effect  of  the  pecuniary  culture  upon 
education,  but  rather  to  illustrate  the  method  and  trend 
of  leisure-class  influence  in  education,  a  survey  of  cer¬ 
tain  salient  features  of  the  higher  learning,  such  as  may 
serve  this  purpose,  is  all  that  will  be  attempted. 

In  point  of  derivation  and  early  development,  learning 
is  somewhat  closely  related  to  the  devotional  function 
of  the  community,  particularly  to  the  body  of  observ¬ 
ances  in  which  the  service  rendered  the  supernatural 
leisure  class  expresses  itself.  The  service  by  which  it 
is  sought  to  conciliate  supernatural  agencies  in  the 
primitive  cults  is  not  an  industrially  profitable  employ¬ 
ment  of  the  community’s  time  and  effort.  It  is,  there¬ 
fore,  in  great  part,  to  be  classed  as  a  vicarious  leisure 
performed  for  the  supernatural  powers  with  whom  ne¬ 
gotiations  are  carried  on  and  whose  good-will  the  service 
and  the  professions  of  subservience  are  conceived  to 
procure.  In  great  part,  the  early  learning  consisted 
in  an  acquisition  of  knowledge  and  facility  in  the  ser¬ 
vice  of  a  supernatural  agent.  It  was  therefore  closely 
analogous  in  character  to  the  training  required  for  the 
domestic  service  of  a  temporal  master.  To  a  great 
extent,  the  knowledge  acquired  under  the  priestly 
teachers  of  the  primitive  community  was  a  knowledge 
of  ritual  and  ceremonial ;  that  is  to  say,  a  knowledge  of 
the  most  proper,  most  effective,  or  most  acceptable 
manner  of  approaching  and  of  serving  the  preternatural 


365 


The  Higher  Learning 

agents.  What  was  learned  was  how  to  make  oneself 
indispensable  to  these  powers,  and  so  to  put  oneself  in 
a  position  to  ask,  or  even  to  require,  their  intercession 
in  the  course  of  events  or  their  abstention  from  inter¬ 
ference  in  any  given  enterprise.  Propitiation  was  the 
end,  and  this  end  was  sought,  in  great  part,  by  acquir¬ 
ing'  facility  in  subservience.  It  appears  to  have  been 
only  gradually  that  other  elements  than  those  of  effi¬ 
cient  service  of  the  master  found  their  way  into  the 
stock  of  priestly  or  shamanistic  instruction. 

The  priestly  servitor  of  the  inscrutable  powers  that 
move  in  the  external  world  came  to  stand  in  the  posi¬ 
tion  of  a  mediator  between  these  powers  and  the 
common  run  of  uninstructed  humanity ;  for  he  was 
possessed  of  a  knowledge  of  the  supernatural  etiquette 
which  would  admit  him  into  the  presence.  And  as 
commonly  happens  with  mediators  between  the  vulgar 
and  their  masters,  whether  the  masters  be  natural  or 
preternatural,  he  found  it  expedient  to  have  the  means 
at  hand  tangibly  to  impress  upon  the  vulgar  the  fact 
that  these  inscrutable  powers  would  do  what  he  might 
ask  of  them.  Hence,  presently,  a  knowledge  of  certain 
natural  processes  which  could  be  turned  to  account  for 
spectacular  effect,  together  with  some  sleight  of  hand, 
came  to  be  an  integral  part  of  priestly  lore.  Knowledge 
of  this  kind  passes  for  knowledge  of  the  “unknowable,” 
and  it  owes  its  serviceability  for  the  sacerdotal  purpose 
to  its  recondite  character.  It  appears  to  have  been 
from  this  source  that  learning,  as  an  institution,  arose, 
and  its  differentiation  from  this  its  parent  stock  of 
magic  ritual  and  shamanistic  fraud  has  been  slow  and 


366  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

tedious,  and  is  scarcely  yet  complete  even  in  the  most 
advanced  of  the  higher  seminaries  of  learning. 

The  recondite  element  in  learning  is  still,  as  it  has 
been  in  all  ages,  a  very  attractive  and  effective  element 
for  the  purpose  of  impressing,  or  even  imposing  upon, 
the  unlearned ;  and  the  standing  of  the  savant  in  the 
mind  of  the  altogether  unlettered  is  in  great  measure 
rated  in  terms  of  intimacy  with  the  occult  forces.  So, 
for  instance,  as  a  typical  case,  even  as  late  as  the 
middle  of  this  century,  the  Norwegian  peasants  have 
instinctively  formulated  their  sense  of  the  superior 
erudition  of  such  doctors  of  divinity  as  Luther,  Melanch- 
thon,  Peder  Dass,  and  even  so  late  a  scholar  in  divinity 
as  Grundtvig,  in  terms  of  the  Black  Art.  These,  to¬ 
gether  with  a  very  comprehensive  list  of  minor  celeb¬ 
rities,  both  living  and  dead,  have  been  reputed  masters 
in  all  magical  arts ;  and  a  high  position  in  the  ecclesi¬ 
astical  personnel  has  carried  with  it,  in  the  apprehen¬ 
sion  of  these  good  people,  an  implication  of  profound 
familiarity  with  magical  practice  and  the  occult  sciences. 
There  is  a  parallel  fact  nearer  home,  similarly  going  to 
show  the  close  relationship,  in  popular  apprehension, 
between  erudition  and  the  unknowable  ;  and  it  will  at 
the  same  time  serve  to  illustrate,  in  somewhat  coarse 
outline,  the  bent  which  leisure-class  life  gives  to  the 
cognitive  interest.  While  the  belief  is  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  leisure  class,  that  class  to-day  comprises 
a  disproportionately  large  number  of  believers  in  occult 
sciences  of  all  kinds  and  shades.  By  those  whose 
habits  of  thought  are  not  shaped  by  contact  with 
modern  industry,  the  knowledge  of  the  unknowable 


The  Higher  Learning  367 

is  still  felt  to  be  the  ultimate  if  not  the  only  true 
knowledge. 

Learning,  then,  set  out  with  being  in  some  sense  a 
by-product  of  the  priestly  vicarious  leisure  class  ;  and, 
at  least  until  a  recent  date,  the  higher  learning  has 
since  remained  in  some  sense  a  by-product  or  by-occu¬ 
pation  of  the  priestly  classes.  As  the  body  of  system¬ 
atised  knowledge  increased,  there  presently  arose  a 
distinction,  traceable  very  far  back  in  the  history  of 
education,  between  esoteric  and  exoteric  knowledge  ; 
the  former  —  so  far  as  there  is  a  substantial  difference 
between  the  two  —  comprising  such  knowledge  as  is 
primarily  of  no  economic  or  industrial  effect,  and  the 
latter  comprising  chiefly  knowledge  of  industrial  pro¬ 
cesses  and  of  natural  phenomena  which  were  habitually 
turned  to  account  for  the  material  purposes  of  life. 
This  line  of  demarcation  has  in  time  become,  at  least 
in  popular  apprehension,  the  normal  line  between  the 
higher  learning  and  the  lower. 

It  is  significant,  not  only  as  an  evidence  of  their  close 
affiliation  with  the  priestly  craft,  but  also  as  indicating 
that  their  activity  to  a  good  extent  falls  under  that 
category  of  conspicuous  leisure  known  as  manners  and 
breeding,  that  the  learned  class  in  all  primitive  com¬ 
munities  are  great  sticklers  for  form,  precedent,  grada¬ 
tions  of  rank,  ritual,  ceremonial  vestments,  and  learned 
paraphernalia  generally.  This  is  of  course  to  be  ex¬ 
pected,  and  it  goes  to  say  that  the  higher  learning,  in 
its  incipient  phase,  is  a  leisure-class  occupation — more 
specifically  an  occupation  of  the  vicarious  leisure  class 
employed  in  the  service  of  the  supernatural  leisure 


368 


The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 


class.  But  this  predilection  for  the  paraphernalia  of 
learning  goes  also  to  indicate  a  further  point  of  contact 
or  of  continuity  between  the  priestly  office  and  the 
office  of  the  savant.  In  point  of  derivation,  learning, 
as  well  as  the  priestly  office,  is  largely  an  outgrowth  of 
sympathetic  magic  ;  and  this  magical  apparatus  of  form 
and  ritual  therefore  finds  its  place  with  the  learned 
class  of  the  primitive  community  as  a  matter  of  course. 
The  ritual  and  paraphernalia  have  an  occult  efficacy  for 
the  magical  purpose  ;  so  that  their  presence  as  an 
integral  factor  in  the  earlier  phases  of  the  development 
of  magic  and  science  is  a  matter  of  expediency,  quite  as 
much  as  of  affectionate  regard  for  symbolism  simply. 

This  sense  of  the  efficacy  of  symbolic  ritual,  and  of 
sympathetic  effect  to  be  wrought  through  dexterous 
rehearsal  of  the  traditional  accessories  of  the  act  or  end 
to  be  compassed,  is  of  course  present  more  obviously 
and  in  larger  measure  in  magical  practice  than  in  the 
discipline  of  the  sciences,  even  of  the  occult  sciences. 
But  there  are,  I  apprehend,  few  persons  with  a  culti¬ 
vated  sense  of  scholastic  merit  to  whom  the  ritualistic 
accessories  of  science  are  altogether  an  idle  matter. 
The  very  great  tenacity  with  which  these  ritualistic 
paraphernalia  persist  through  the  later  course  of  the 
development  is  evident  to  any  one  who  will  reflect  on 
what  has  been  the  history  of  learning  in  our  civilisation. 
Even  to-day  there  are  such  things  in  the  usage  of  the 
learned  community  as  the  cap  and  gown,  matriculation, 
initiation,  and  graduation  ceremonies,  and  the  confer¬ 
ring  of  scholastic  degrees,  dignities,  and  prerogatives 
in  a  way  which  suggests  some  sort  of  a  scholarly  apos- 


The  Higher  Learning 


369 


tolic  succession.  The  usage  of  the  priestly  orders  is 
no  doubt  the  proximate  source  of  all  these  features  of 
learned  ritual,  vestments,  sacramental  initiation,  the 
transmission  of  peculiar  dignities  and  virtues  by  the 
imposition  of  hands,  and  the  like  ;  but  their  derivation 
is  traceable  back  of  this  point,  to  the  source  from  which 
the  specialised  priestly  class  proper  received  them  in » 
the  course  of  differentiation  by  which  the  priest  came 
to  be  distinguished  from  the  sorcerer  on  the  one  hand 
and  from  the  menial  servant  of  a  temporal  master  on 
the  other  hand.  So  far  as  regards  both  their  derivation 
and  their  psychological  content,  these  usages  and  the 
conceptions  on  which  they  rest  belong  to  a  stage  in 
cultural  development  no  later  than  that  of  the  angekok 
and  the  rain-maker.  Their  place  in  the  later  phases  of 
devout  observance,  as  well  as  in  the  higher  educational 
system,  is  that  of  a  survival  from  a  very  early  animistic 
phase  of  the  development  of  human  nature. 

These  ritualistic  features  of  the  educational  system  " 
of  the  present  and  of  the  recent  past,  it  is  quite  safe  to 
say,  have  their  place  primarily  in  the  higher,  liberal, 
and  classic  institutions  and  grades  of  learning,  rather 
than  in  the  lower,  technological,  or  practical  grades  and 
branches  of  the  system.  So  far  as  they  possess  them, 
the  lower  and  less  reputable  branches  of  the  educa¬ 
tional  scheme  have  evidently  borrowed  these  things 
from  the  higher  grades  ;  and  their  continued  persist¬ 
ence  among  the  practical  schools,  without  the  sanction 
of  the  continued  example  of  the  higher  and  classic 
grades,  would  be  highly  improbable,  to  say  the  least. 
With  the  lower  and  practical  schools  and  scholars,  the 


370  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

adoption  and  cultivation  of  these  usages  is  a  case  of 
mimicry  —  due  to  a  desire  to  conform  as  far  as  may  be 
to  the  standards  of  scholastic  reputability  maintained 
by  the  upper  grades  and  classes,  who  have  come  by 
these  accessory  features  legitimately,  by  the  right  of 
lineal  devolution. 

The  analysis  may  even  be  safely  carried  a  step 
farther.  Ritualistic  survivals  and  reversions  come  out 
in  fullest  vigour  and  with  the  freest  air  of  spontaneity 
among  those  seminaries  of  learning  which  have  to  do 
primarily  with  the  education  of  the  priestly  and  leisure 
classes.  Accordingly  it  should  appear,  and  it  does 
pretty  plainly  appear,  on  a  survey  of  recent  developments 
in  college  and  university  life,  that  wherever  schools 
founded  for  the  instruction  of  the  lower  classes  in  the 
immediately  useful  branches  of  knowledge  grow  into 
institutions  of  the  higher  learning,  the  growth  of  ritual¬ 
istic  ceremonial  and  paraphernalia  and  of  elaborate  schol¬ 
astic  “functions”  goes  hand  in  hand  with  the  transition 
of  the  schools  in  question  from  the  field  of  homely  prac¬ 
ticality  into  the  higher,  classical  sphere.  The  initial 
purpose  of  these  schools,  and  the  work  with  which  they 
have  chiefly  had  to  do  at  the  earlier  of  these  two  stages 
of  their  evolution,  has  been  that  of  fitting  the  young  of 
the  industrious  classes  for  work.  On  the  higher,  classical 
plane  of  learning  to  which  they  commonly  tend,  their 
dominant  aim  becomes  the  preparation  of  the  youth  of 
the  priestly  and  the  leisure  classes  —  or  of  an  incipient 
leisure  class — for  the  consumption  of  goods,  material 
and  immaterial,  according  to  a  conventionally  ac¬ 
cepted,  reputable  scope  and  method.  This  happy  issue 


37i 


The  Higher  Learning 

has  commonly  been  the  fate  of  schools  founded  by 
“  friends  of  the  people  ”  for  the  aid  of  struggling  young 
men,  and  where  this  transition  is  made  in  good  form 
there  is  commonly,  if  not  invariably,  a  coincident  change 
to  a  more  ritualistic  life  in  the  schools. 

In  the  school  life  of  to-day,  learned  ritual  is  in  a 
general  way  best  at  home  in  schools  whose  chief  end  is 
the  cultivation  of  the  (<  humanities.”  This  correlation 
is  shown,  perhaps  more  neatly  than  anywhere  else,  in 
the  life-history  of  the  American  colleges  and  universities 
of  recent  growth.  There  may  be  many  exceptions  from 
the  rule,  especially  among  those  schools  which  have 
been  founded  by  the  typically  reputable  and  ritualistic 
churches,  and  which,  therefore,  started  on  the  conser¬ 
vative  and  classical  plane  or  reached  the  classical 
position  by  a  short-cut ;  but  the  general  rule  as  regards 
the  colleges  founded  in  the  newer  American  communi¬ 
ties  during  the  present  century  has  been  that  so  long 
as  the  community  has  remained  poor,  and  so  long  as  the 
constituency  from  which  the  colleges  have  drawn  their 
pupils  has  been  dominated  by  habits  of  industry  and 
thrift,  so  long  the  reminiscences  of  the  medicine-man 
have  found  but  a  scant  and  precarious  acceptance  in 
the  scheme  of  college  life.  But  so  soon  as  wealth 
begins  appreciably  to  accumulate  in  the  community, 
and  so  soon  as  a  given  school  begins  to  lean  on  a 
leisure-class  constituency,  there  comes  also  a  percep¬ 
tibly  increased  insistence  on  scholastic  ritual  and  on 
conformity  to  the  ancient  forms  as  regards  vestments 
and  social  and  scholastic  solemnities.  So,  for  instance, 
there  has  been  an  approximate  coincidence  between 


372  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

the  growth  of  wealth  among  the  constituency  which 
supports  any  given  college  of  the  Middle  West  and  the 
date  of  acceptance  —  first  into  tolerance  and  then  into 
imperative  vogue  —  of  evening  dress  for  men  and  of 
the  decollete  for  women,  as  the  scholarly  vestments 
proper  to  occasions  of  learned  solemnity  or  to  the 
seasons  of  social  amenity  within  the  college  circle. 
Apart  from  the  mechanical  difficulty  of  so  large  a  task, 
it  would  scarcely  be  a  difficult  matter  to  trace  this 
correlation.  The  like  is  true  of  the  vogue  of  the  cap 
and  gown. 

Cap  and  gown  have  been  adopted  as  learned  insignia 
by  many  colleges  of  this  section  within  the  last  few 
years ;  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  this  could  scarcely  have 
occurred  at  a  much  earlier  date,  or  until  there  had  grown 
up  a  leisure-class  sentiment  of  sufficient  volume  in  the 
community  to  support  a  strong  movement  of  reversion 
towards  an  archaic  view  as  to  the  legitimate  end  of  edu¬ 
cation.  This  particular  item  of  learned  ritual,  it  may 
be  noted,  would  not  only  commend  itself  to  the  leisure- 
class  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things,  as  appealing  to  the 
archaic  propensity  for  spectacular  effect  and  the  predi¬ 
lection  for  antique  symbolism  ;  but  it  at  the  same  time 
fits  into  the  leisure-class  scheme  of  life  as  involving  a 
notable  element  of  conspicuous  waste.  The  precise 
date  at  which  the  reversion  to  cap  and  gown  took  place, 
as  well  as  the  fact  that  it  affected  so  large  a  number  of 
schools  at  about  the  same  time,  seems  to  have  been 
due  in  some  measure  to  a  wave  of  atavistic  sense  of 
conformity  and  reputability  that  passed  over  the  com¬ 
munity  at  that  period. 


373 


The  Higher  Learning 

It  may  not  be  entirely  beside  the  point  to  note  that 
in  point  of  time  this  curious  reversion  seems  to  coincide 
with  the  culmination  of  a  certain  vogue  of  atavistic 
sentiment  and  tradition  in  other  directions  also.  The 
wave  of  reversion  seems  to  have  received  its  initial 
impulse  in  the  psychologically  disintegrating  effects  of 
the  Civil  War.  Habituation  to  war  entails  a  body  of 
predatory  habits  of  thought,  whereby  clannishness 
in  some  measure  replaces  the  sense  of  solidarity,  and 
a  sense  of  invidious  distinction  supplants  the  impulse 
to  equitable,  everyday  serviceability.  As  an  outcome 
of  the  cumulative  action  of  these  factors,  the  genera¬ 
tion  which  follows  a  season  of  war  is  apt  to  witness  a 
rehabilitation  of  the  element  of  status,  both  in  its  social 
life  and  in  its  scheme  of  devout  observances  and  other 
symbolic  or  ceremonial  forms.  Throughout  the  eigh¬ 
ties,  and  less  plainly  traceable  through  the  seventies 
also,  there  was  perceptible  a  gradually  advancing  wave 
of  sentiment  favouring  quasi-predatory  business  habits, 
insistence  on  status,  anthropomorphism,  and  conserva¬ 
tism  generally.  The  more  direct  and  unmediated  of 
these  expressions  of  the  barbarian  temperament,  such 
as  the  recrudescence  of  outlawry  and  the  spectacular 
quasi-predatory  careers  of  fraud  run  by  certain  “cap¬ 
tains  of  industry,”  came  to  a  head  earlier  and  were 
appreciably  on  the  decline  by  the  close  of  the  seventies. 
The  recrudescence  of  anthropomorphic  sentiment  also 
seems  to  have  passed  its  most  acute  stage  before  the 
close  of  the  eighties.  But  the  learned  ritual  and  para¬ 
phernalia  here  spoken  of  are  a  still  remoter  and  more 
recondite  expression  of  the  barbarian  animistic  sense ; 


374  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

and  these,  therefore,  gained  vogue  and  elaboration  more 
slowly  and  reached  their  most  effective  development  at 
a  still  later  date.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the 
culmination  is  now  already  past.  Except  for  the  new 
impetus  given  by  a  new  war  experience,  and  except  for 
the  support  which  the  growth  of  a  wealthy  class  affords  to 
all  ritual,  and  especially  to  whatever  ceremonial  is  waste¬ 
ful  and  pointedly  suggests  gradations  of  status,  it  is 
probable  that  the  late  improvements  and  augmentation 
of  scholastic  insignia  and  ceremonial  would  gradually 
decline.  But  while  it  may  be  true  that  the  cap  and 
gown,  and  the  more  strenuous  observance  of  scholastic 
proprieties  which  came  with  them,  were  floated  in  on 
this  post-bellum  tidal  wave  of  reversion  to  barbarism,  it 
is  also  no  doubt  true  that  such  a  ritualistic  reversion 
could  not  have  been  effected  in  the  college  scheme  of 
life  until  the  accumulation  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of 
a  propertied  class  had  gone  far  enough  to  afford  the 
requisite  pecuniary  ground  for  a  movement  which  should 
bring  the  colleges  of  the  country  up  to  the  leisure-class 
requirements  in  the  higher  learning.  The  adoption  of 
the  cap  and  gown  is  one  of  the  striking  atavistic  feat¬ 
ures  of  modern  college  life,  and  at  the  same  time  it 
marks  the  fact  that  these  colleges  have  definitively 
become  leisure-class  establishments,  either  in  actual 
achievement  or  in  aspiration. 

As  further  evidence  of  the  close  relation  between 
the  educational  system  and  the  cultural  standards  of 
the  community,  it  may  be  remarked  that  there  is  some 
tendency  latterly  to  substitute  the  captain  of  industry 
in  place  of  the  priest,  as  the  head  of  seminaries  of  the 


The  Higher  Learning 


375 


higher  learning.  The  substitution  is  by  no  means 
complete  or  unequivocal.  Those  heads  of  institutions 
are  best  accepted  who  combine  the  sacerdotal  office 
with  a  high  degree  of  pecuniary  efficiency.  There  is 
a  similar  but  less  pronounced  tendency  to  intrust  the 
work  of  instruction  in  the  higher  learning  to  men  of 
some  pecuniary  qualification.  Administrative  ability 
and  skill  in  advertising  the  enterprise  count  for  rather 
more  than  they  once  did,  as  qualifications  for  the  work 
of  teaching.  This  applies  especially  in  those  sciences 
that  have  most  to  do  with  the  everyday  facts  of  life, 
and  it  is  particularly  true  of  schools  in  the  economically 
single-minded  communities.  This  partial  substitution 
of  pecuniary  for  sacerdotal  efficiency  is  a  concomitant 
of  the  modern  transition  from  conspicuous  leisure  to 
conspicuous  consumption,  as  the  chief  means  of  reputa¬ 
bility.  The  correlation  of  the  two  facts  is  probably 
clear  without  further  elaboration. 

The  attitude  of  the  schools  and  of  the  learned  class 
towards  the  education  of  women  serves  to  show  in  what 
manner  and  to  what  extent  learning  has  departed  from 
its  ancient  station  of  priestly  and  leisure-class  preroga¬ 
tive,  and  it  indicates  also  what  approach  has  been  made 
by  the  truly  learned  to  the  modern,  economic  or  indus¬ 
trial,  matter-of-fact  standpoint.  The  higher  schools  and 
the  learned  professions  were  until  recently  tabu  to  the 
women.  These  establishments  were  from  the  outset, 
and  have  in  great  measure  continued  to  be,  devoted  to 
the  education  of  the  priestly  and  leisure  classes. 

The  women,  as  has  been  shown  elsewhere,  were  the 
original  subservient  class,  and  to  some  extent,  espe- 


3 y6  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

daily  so  far  as  regards  their  nominal  or  ceremonial  po¬ 
sition,  they  have  remained  in  that  relation  down  to  the 
present.  There  has  prevailed  a  strong  sense  that  the 
admission  of  women  to  the  privileges  of  the  higher 
learning  (as  to  the  Eleusinian  mysteries)  would  be 
derogatory  to  the  dignity  of  the  learned  craft.  It  is 
therefore  only  very  recently,  and  almost  solely  in  the 
industrially  most  advanced  communities,  that  the  higher 
grades  of  schools  have  been  freely^  opened  to  women. 
And  even  under  the  urgent  circumstances  prevailing  in 
the  modern  industrial  communities,  the  highest  and 
most  reputable  universities  show  an  extreme  reluctance 
in  making  the  move.  The  sense  of  class  worthiness, 
that  is  to  say  of  status,  of  a  honorific  differentiation  of 
the  sexes  according  to  a  distinction  between  superior 
and  inferior  intellectual  dignity,  survives  in  a  vigorous 
form  in  these  corporations  of  the  aristocracy  of  learn¬ 
ing.  It  is  felt  that  the  women  should,  in  all  propriety, 
acquire  only  such  knowledge  as  may  be  classed  under 
one  or  the  other  of  two  heads:  (i)  such  knowledge  as 
conduces  immediately  to  a  better  performance  of  domes¬ 
tic  service  —  the  domestic  sphere;  (2)  such  accomplish¬ 
ments  and  dexterity,  quasi-scholarly  and  quasi-artistic, 
as  plainly  come  in  under  the  head  of  a  performance  of 
vicarious  leisure.  Knowledge  is  felt  to  be  unfeminine 
if  it  is  knowledge  which  expresses  the  unfolding  of  the 
learner’s  own  life,  the  acquisition  of  which  proceeds  on 
the  learner’s  own  cognitive  interest,  without  prompting 
from  the  canons  of  propriety,  and  without  reference 
back  to  a  master  whose  comfort  or  good  repute  is  to 
be  enhanced  by  the  employment  or  the  exhibition  of 


The  Higher  Learning 


3/7 


it.  So,  also,  all  knowledge  which  is  useful  as  evidence 
of  leisure,  other  than  vicarious  leisure,  is  scarcely 
feminine. 

For  an  appreciation  of  the  relation  which  these 
higher  seminaries  of  learning  bear  to  the  economic  life 
of  the  community,  the  phenomena  which  have  been 
reviewed  are  of  importance  rather  as  indications  of 
a  general  attitude  than  as  being  in  themselves  facts 
of  first-rate  economic  consequence.  They  go  to  show 
what  is  the  instinctive  attitude  and  animus  of  the 
learned  class  towards  the  life  process  of  an  industrial 
community.  They  serve  as  an  exponent  of  the  stage 
of  development,  for  the  industrial  purpose,  attained 
by  the  higher  learning  and  by  the  learned  class,  and 
so  they  afford  an  indication  as  to  what  may  fairly  be 
looked  for  from  this  class  at  points  where  the  learning 
and  the  life  of  the  class  bear  more  immediately  upon 
the  economic  life  and  efficiency  of  the  community,  and 
upon  the  adjustment  of  its  scheme  of  life  to  the  require¬ 
ments  of  the  time.  What  these  ritualistic  survivals  go 
to  indicate  is  a  prevalence  of  conservatism,  if  not  of 
reactionary  sentiment,  especially  among  the  higher 
schools  where  the  conventional  learning  is  cultivated. 

To  these  indications  of  a  conservative  attitude  is  to 
be  added  another  characteristic  which  goes  in  the  same 
direction,  but  which  is  a  symptom  of  graver  consequence 
than  this  playful  inclination  to  trivialities  of  form  and 
ritual.  By  far  the  greater  number  of  American  colleges 
and  universities,  for  instance,  are  affiliated  to  some  reli¬ 
gious  denomination  and  are  somewhat  given  to  devout 
observances.  Their  putative  familiarity  with  scientific 


3 78  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

methods  and  the  scientific  point  of  view  should  presum¬ 
ably  exempt  the  faculties  of  these  schools  from  animistic 
habits  of  thought ;  but  there  is  still  a  considerable  pro¬ 
portion  of  them  who  profess  an  attachment  to  the  an¬ 
thropomorphic  beliefs  and  observances  of  an  earlier 
culture.  These  professions  of  devotional  zeal  are,  no 
doubt,  to  a  good  extent  expedient  and  perfunctory,  both 
on  the  part  of  the  schools  in  their  corporate  capacity, 
and  on  the  part  of  the  individual  members  of  the  corps 
of  instructors  ;  but  it  can  not  be  doubted  that  there  is 
after  all  a  very  appreciable  element  of  anthropomorphic 
sentiment  present  in  the  higher  schools.  So  far  as  this 
is  the  case  it  must  be  set  down  as  the  expression  of  an 
archaic,  animistic  habit  of  mind.  This  habit  of  mind 
must  necessarily  assert  itself  to  some  extent  in  the 
instruction  offered,  and  to  this  extent  its  influence  in 
shaping  the  habits  of  thought  of  the  student  makes  for 
conservatism  and  reversion  ;  it  acts  to  hinder  his  devel¬ 
opment  in  the  direction  of  matter-of-fact  knowledge, 
such  as  best  serves  the  ends  of  industry. 

The  college  sports,  which  have  so  great  a  vogue  in 
the  reputable  seminaries  of  learning  to-day,  tend  in  a 
similar  direction  ;  and,  indeed,  sports  have  much  in  com¬ 
mon  with  the  devout  attitude  of  the  colleges,  both  as 
regards  their  psychological  basis  and  as  regards  their 
disciplinary  effect.  But  this  expression  of  the  barbarian 
temperament  is  to  be  credited  primarily  to  the  body  of 
students,  rather  than  to  the  temper  of  the  schools  as 
such  ;  except  in  so  far  as  the  colleges  or  the  college 
officials  —  as  sometimes  happens  —  actively  countenance 
and  foster  the  growth  of  sports.  The  like  is  as  true  of  col- 


The  Higher  Learning 


379 


lege  fraternities  as  of  college  sports,  but  with  a  difference. 
The  former  are  chiefly  an  expression  of  the  predatory 
impulse  simply;  the  latter  are  more  specifically  an  ex- 
pression  of  that  heritage  of  clannishness  which  is  so 
large  a  feature  in  the  temperament  of  the  predatory 
barbarian.  It  is  also  noticeable  that  a  close  relation 
subsists  between  the  fraternities  and  the  sporting  activ¬ 
ity  of  the  schools.  After  what  has  already  been  said  in 
an  earlier  chapter  on  the  sporting  and  gambling  habit, 
it  is  scarcely  necessary  further  to  discuss  the  economic 
value  of  this  training  in  sports  and  in  factional  organisa¬ 
tion  and  activity. 

But  all  these  features  of  the  scheme  of  life  of  the 
learned  class,  and  of  the  establishments  dedicated  to  the 
conservation  of  the  higher  learning,  are  in  a  great  meas¬ 
ure  incidental  only.  They  are  scarcely  to  be  accounted 
organic  elements  of  the  professed  work  of  research  and 
instruction  for  the  ostensible  pursuit  of  which  the 
schools  exist.  But  these  symptomatic  indications  go  to 
establish  a  presumption  as  to  the  character  of  the  work 
performed —  as  seen  from  the  economic  point  of  view  — 
and  as  to  the  bent  which  the  serious  work  carried  on 
under  their  auspices  gives  to  the  youth  who  resort  to  the 
schools.  The  presumption  raised  by  the  considerations 
already  offered  is  that  in  their  work  also,  as  well  as  in 
their  ceremonial,  the  higher  schools  may  be  expected  to 
take  a  conservative  position  ;  but  this  presumption  must 
be  checked  by  a  comparison  of  the  economic  character 
of  the  work  actually  performed,  and  by  something  of  a 
survey  of  the  learning  whose  conservation  is  intrusted 
to  the  higher  schools.  On  this  head,  it  is  well  known 


380  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

that  the  accredited  seminaries  of  learning  have,  until  a 
recent  date,  held  a  conservative  position.  They  have 
taken  an  attitude  of  deprecation  towards  all  innovations. 
As  a  general  rule  a  new  point  of  view  or  a  new  formula¬ 
tion  of  knowledge  have  been  countenanced  and  taken  up 
within  the  schools  only  after  these  new  things  have 
made  their  way  outside  of  the  schools.  As  exceptions 
from  this  rule  are  chiefly  to  be  mentioned  innovations  of 
an  inconspicuous  kind  and  departures  which  do  not  bear 
in  any  tangible  way  upon  the  conventional  point  of 
view  or  upon  the  conventional  scheme  of  life ;  as,  for 
instance,  details  of  fact  in  the  mathematico-physical 
sciences,  and  new  readings  and  interpretations  of  the 
classics,  especially  such  as  have  a  philological  or  literary 
bearing  only.  Except  within  the  domain  of  the  “hu¬ 
manities,”  in  the  narrow  sense,  and  except  so  far  as  the 
traditional  point  of  view  of  the  humanities  has  been  left 
intact  by  the  innovators,  it  has  generally  held  true  that 
the  accredited  learned  class  and  the  seminaries  of  the 
higher  learning  have  looked  askance  at  all  innovation. 
New  views,  new  departures  in  scientific  theory,  espe¬ 
cially  new  departures  which  touch  the  theory  of  human 
relations  at  any  point,  have  found  a  place  in  the  scheme 
of  the  university  tardily  and  by  a  reluctant  tolerance, 
rather  than  by  a  cordial  welcome ;  and  the  men  who 
have  occupied  themselves  with  such  efforts  to  widen  the 
scope  of  human  knowledge  have  not  commonly  been 
well  received  by  their  learned  contemporaries.  The 
higher  schools  have  not  commonly  given  their  counte¬ 
nance  to  a  serious  advance  in  the  methods  or  the  content 
of  knowledge  until  the  innovations  have  outlived  their 


The  Higher  Learning 


381 


youth  and  much  of  their  usefulness  —  after  they  have 
become  commonplaces  of  the  intellectual  furniture  of  a 
new  generation  which  has  grown  up  under,  and  has  had 
its  habits  of  thought  shaped  by,  the  new,  extra-scholastic 
body  of  knowledge  and  the  new  standpoint.  This  is 
true  of  the  recent  past.  How  far  it  may  be  true  of  the 
immediate  present  it  would  be  hazardous  to  say,  for  it 
is  impossible  to  see  present-day  facts  in  such  perspec¬ 
tive  as  to  get  a  fair  conception  of  their  relative  pro¬ 
portions. 

So  far,  nothing  has  been  said  of  the  Maecenas  func¬ 
tion  of  the  well-to-do,  which  is  habitually  dwelt  on  at 
some  length  by  writers  and  speakers  who  treat  of  the 
development  of  culture  and  of  social  structure.  This 
leisure-class  function  is  not  without  an  important  bear¬ 
ing  on  the  higher  learning  and  on  the  spread  of  know¬ 
ledge  and  culture.  The  manner  and  the  degree  in 
which  the  class  furthers  learning  through  patronage 
of  this  kind  is  sufficiently  familiar.  It  has  been  fre¬ 
quently  presented  in  affectionate  and  effective  terms 
by  spokesmen  whose  familiarity  with  the  topic  fits  them 
to  bring  home  to  their  hearers  the  profound  significance 
of  this  cultural  factor.  These  spokesmen,  however, 
have  presented  the  matter  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  cultural  interest,  or  of  the  interest  of  reputability, 
rather  than  from  that  of  the  economic  interest.  As 
apprehended  from  the  economic  point  of  view,  and 
valued  for  the  purpose  of  industrial  serviceability,  this 
function  of  the  well-to-do,  as  well  as  the  intellectual 
attitude  of  members  of  the  well-to-do  class,  merits  some 
attention  and  will  bear  illustration. 


382  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

By  way  of  characterisation  of  the  Maecenas  relation, 
it  is  to  be  noted  that,  considered  externally,  as  an  eco¬ 
nomic  or  industrial  relation  simply,  it  is  a  relation  of 
status.  The  scholar  under  patronage  performs  the 
duties  of  a  learned  life  vicariously  for  his  patron,  to 
whom  a  certain  repute  inures  after  the  manner  of  the 
good  repute  imputed  to  a  master  for  whom  any  form  of 
vicarious  leisure  is  performed.  It  is  also  to  be  noted 
that,  in  point  of  historical  fact,  the  furtherance  of  learn¬ 
ing  or  the  maintenance  of  scholarly  activity  through 
the  Maecenas  relation  has  most  commonly  been  a  fur¬ 
therance  of  proficiency  in  classical  lore  or  in  the  hu¬ 
manities.  This  knowledge  tends  to  lower  rather  than 
to  heighten  the  industrial  efficiency  of  the  community. 

Further,  as  regards  the  direct  participation  of  the 
members  of  the  leisure  class  in  the  furtherance  of  know¬ 
ledge.  The  canons  of  reputable  living  act  to  throw 
such  intellectual  interest  as  seeks  expression  among  the 
class  on  the  side  of  classical  and  formal  erudition,  rather 
than  on  the  side  of  the  sciences  that  bear  some  relation 
to  the  community’s  industrial  life.  The  most  frequent 
excursions  into  other  than  classical  fields  of  knowledge 
on  the  part  of  members  of  the  leisure  class  are  made 
into  the  discipline  of  law  and  of  the  political,  and  more 
especially  the  administrative,  sciences.  These  so-called 
sciences  are  substantially  bodies  of  maxims  of  expedi¬ 
ency  for  guidance  in  the  leisure-class  office  of  govern¬ 
ment,  as  conducted  on  a  proprietary  basis.  The  interest 
with  which  this  discipline  is  approached  is  therefore  not 
commonly  the  intellectual  or  cognitive  interest  simply. 
It  is  largely  the  practical  interest  of  the  exigencies  of 


3^3 


F]ie  Higher  Learning 

that  relation  of  mastery  in  which  the  members  of  the 
class  are  placed.  In  point  of  derivation,  the  office  of 
.  government  is  a  predatory  function,  pertaining  integrally 
to  the  archaic  leisure-class  scheme  of  life.  It  is  an 
exercise  of  control  and  coercion  over  the  population 
from  which  the  class  draws  its  sustenance.  This  dis¬ 
cipline,  as  well  as  the  incidents  of  practice  which  give 
it  its  content,  therefore  has  some  attraction  for 
the  class  apart  from  all  questions  of  cognition.  All 
this  holds  true  wherever  and  so  long  as  the  govern¬ 
mental  office  continues,  in  form  or  in  substance,  to  be 
a  proprietary  office  ;  and  it  holds  true  beyond  that  limit, 
in  so  far  as  the  tradition  of  the  more  archaic  phase  of 
governmental  evolution  has  lasted  on  into  the  later 
life  of  those  modern  communities  for  whom  proprietary 
government  by  a  leisure  class  is  now  beginning  to  pass 
away. 

—  For  that  field  of  learning  within  which  the  cognitive 
or  intellectual  interest  is  dominant  —  the  sciences  prop¬ 
erly  so  called  —  the  case  is  somewhat  different,  not 
only  as  regards  the  attitude  of  the  leisure  class,  but 
as  regards  the  whole  drift  of  the  pecuniary  culture. 
Knowledge  for  its  own  sake,  the  exercise  of  the  faculty 
of  comprehension  without  ulterior  purpose,  should,  it 
might  be  expected,  be  sought  by  men  whom  no  urgent 
material  interest  diverts  from  such  a  quest.  The  shel¬ 
tered  industrial  position  of  the  leisure  class  should  give 
free  play  to  the  cognitive  interest  in  members  of  this 
class,  and  we  should  consequently  have,  as  many  writ¬ 
ers  confidently  find  that  we  do  have,  a  very  large  pro¬ 
portion  of  scholars,  scientists,  savants  derived  from  this 


384  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

class  and  deriving  their  incentive  to  scientific  investi¬ 
gation  and  speculation  from  the  discipline  of  a  life  of 
leisure.  Some  such  result  is  to  be  looked  for,  but 
there  are  features  of  the  leisure-class  scheme  of  life, 
already  sufficiently  dwelt  upon,  which  go  to  divert  the 
intellectual  interest  of  this  class  to  other  subjects  than 
that  causal  sequence  in  phenomena  which  makes  the 
content  of  the  sciences.  The  habits  of  thought  which 
characterise  the  life  of  the  class  run  on  the  personal 
relation  of  dominance,  and  on  the  derivative,  invidious 
concepts  of  honour,  worth,  merit,  character,  and  the  like. 
The  causal  sequence  which  makes  up  the  subject  mat¬ 
ter  of  science  is  not  visible  from  this  point  of  view. 
Neither  does  good  repute  attach  to  knowledge  of  facts 
that  are  vulgarly  useful.  Hence  it  should  appear  prob¬ 
able  that  the  interest  of  the  invidious  comparison  with 
respect  to  pecuniary  or  other  honorific  merit  should 
occupy  the  attention  of  the  leisure  class,  to  the  neglect 
of  the  cognitive  interest.  Where  this  latter  interest 
asserts  itself  it  should  commonly  be  diverted  to  fields 
of  speculation  or  investigation  which  are  reputable  and 
futile,  rather  than  to  the  quest  of  scientific  knowledge. 
Such  indeed  has  been  the  history  of  priestly  and 
leisure-class  learning  so  long  as  no  considerable  body 
of  systematised  knowledge  had  been  intruded  into  the 
scholastic  discipline  from  an  extra-scholastic  source. 
But  since  the  relation  of  mastery  and  subservience  is 
ceasing  to  be  the  dominant  and  formative  factor  in  the 
community’s  life  process,  other  features  of  the  life 
process  and  other  points  of  view  are  forcing  themselves 
upon  the  scholars. 


The  Higher  Learning 


385 


The  true-bred  gentleman  of  leisure  should,  and  does, 
see  the  world  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  personal 
relation ;  and  the  cognitive  interest,  so  far  as  it  asserts 
itself  in  him,  should  seek  to  systematise  phenomena 
on  this  basis.  Such  indeed  is  the  case  with  gentlemen 
of  the  old  school,  in  whom  the  leisure-class  ideals  have 
suffered  no  disintegration ;  and  such  is  the  attitude  of 
his  latter-day  descendant,  in  so  far  as  he  has  fallen 
heir  to  the  full  complement  of  upper-class  virtues.  But 
the  ways  of  heredity  are  devious,  and  not  every  gentle¬ 
man’s  son  is  to  the  manor  born.  Especially  is  the 
transmission  of  the  habits  of  thought  which  charac¬ 
terise  the  predatory  master  somewhat  precarious  in  the 
case  of  a  line  of  descent  in  which  but  one  or  two  of 
the  latest  steps  have  lain  within  the  leisure-class  disci¬ 
pline.  The  chances  of  occurrence  of  a  strong  congenital 
or  acquired  bent  towards  the  exercise  of  the  cognitive 
aptitudes  are  apparently  best  in  those  members  of  the 
leisure  class  who  are  of  lower-class  or  middle-class 
antecedents,  —  that  is  to  say,  those  who  have  inherited 
the  complement  of  aptitudes  proper  to  the  industrious 
classes,  and  who  owe  their  place  in  the  leisure  class  to 
the  possession  of  qualities  which  count  for  more  to-day 
than  they  did  in  the  times  when  the  leisure-class 
scheme  of  life  took  shape.  But  even  outside  the  range 
of  these  later  accessions  to  the  leisure  class  there  are 
an  appreciable  number  of  individuals  in  whom  the 
invidious  interest  is  not  sufficiently  dominant  to  shape 
their  theoretical  views,  and  in  whom  the  proclivity  to 
theory  is  sufficiently  strong  to  lead  them  into  the 
scientific  quest. 


386  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

The  higher  learning  owes  the  intrusion  of  the  sci¬ 
ences  in  part  to  these  aberrant  scions  of  the  leisure 
class,  who  have  come  under  the  dominant  influence  of 
the  latter-day  tradition  of  impersonal  relation  and  who 
have  inherited  a  complement  of  human  aptitudes  differ¬ 
ing  in  certain  salient  features  from  the  temperament 
which  is  characteristic  of  the  regime  of  status.  But  it 
owes  the  presence  of  this  alien  body  of  scientific  know¬ 
ledge  also  in  part,  and  in  a  higher  degree,  to  members 
of  the  industrious  classes  who  have  been  in  sufficiently 
easy  circumstances  to  turn  their  attention  to  other  in¬ 
terests  than  that  of  finding  daily  sustenance,  and  whose 
inherited  aptitudes  run  back  of  the  regime  of  status  in 
the  respect  that  the  invidious  and  anthropomorphic 
point  of  view  does  not  dominate  their  intellectual  pro¬ 
cesses.  As  between  these  two  groups,  which  approxi¬ 
mately  comprise  the  effective  force  of  scientific  progress, 
it  is  the  latter  that  has  contributed  the  most.  And  with 
respect  to  both  it  seems  to  be  true  that  they  are  not  so 
much  the  source  as  the  vehicle,  or  at  the  most  they  are 
the  instrument  of  commutation,  by  which  the  habits  of 
thought  enforced  upon  the  community,  through  contact 
with  its  environment  under  the  exigencies  of  modern 
associated  life  and  the  mechanical  industries,  are  turned 
to  account  for  theoretical  knowledge. 

Science,  in  the  sense  of  an  articulate  recognition  of 
causal  sequence  in  phenomena,  whether  physical  or 
social,  has  been  a  feature  of  the  Western  culture  only 
since  the  industrial  process  in  the  Western  communities 
has  come  to  be  substantially  a  process  of  mechanical 
contrivances  in  which  man’s  office  is  that  of  discrimina- 


387 


The  Higher  Learning 

tion  and  valuation  of  material  forces.  Science  has  flour¬ 
ished  somewhat  in  the  same  degree  as  the  industrial 
life  of  the  community  has  conformed  to  this  pattern, 
and  somewhat  in  the  same  degree  as  the  industrial  in¬ 
terest  has  dominated  the  community’s  life.  And  sci¬ 
ence,  and  scientific  theory  especially,  has  made  headway 
in  the  several  departments  of  human  life  and  knowledge 
in  proportion  as  each  of  these  several  departments  has 
successively  come  into  closer  contact  with  the  indus¬ 
trial  process  and  the  economic  interest ;  or  perhaps 
it  is  truer  to  say,  in  proportion  as  each  of  them  has 
successively  escaped  from  the  dominance  of  the  con¬ 
ceptions  of  personal  relation  or  status,  and  of  the  de¬ 
rivative  canons  of  anthropomorphic  fitness  and  honorific 
worth. 

It  is  only  as  the  exigencies  of  modern  industrial  life 
have  enforced  the  recognition  of  causal  sequence  in  the 
practical  contact  of  mankind  with  their  environment, 
that  men  have  come  to  systematise  the  phenomena  of 
this  environment,  and  the  facts  of  their  own  contact 
with  it,  in  terms  of  causal  sequence.  So  that  while  the 
higher  learning  in  its  best  development,  as  the  perfect 
flower  of  scholasticism  and  classicism,  was  a  by-product 
of  the  priestly  office  and  the  life  of  leisure,  modern  sci¬ 
ence  may  be  said  to  be  a  by-product  of  the  industrial  • 
process.  Through  these  groups  of  men,  then  — investi¬ 
gators,  savants,  scientists,  inventors,  speculators  —  most 
of  whom  have  done  their  most  telling  work  outside  the 
shelter  of  the  schools,  the  habits  of  thought  enforced 
by  the  modern  industrial  life  have  found  coherent  ex¬ 
pression  and  elaboration  as  a  body  of  theoretical  science 


388  The  Theory  of  the  Leisui'e  Class 

having  to  do  with  the  causal  sequence  of  phenomena. 
And  from  this  extra-scholastic  field  of  scientific  specu¬ 
lation,  changes  of  method  and  purpose  have  from  time 
to  time  been  intruded  into  the  scholastic  discipline. 

In  this  connection  it  is  to  be  remarked  that  there  is 
a  very  perceptible  difference  of  substance  and  purpose 
between  the  instruction  offered  in  the  primary  and 
secondary  schools,  on  the  one  hand,  and  in  the  higher 
seminaries  of  learning,  on  the  other  hand.  The  differ¬ 
ence  in  point  of  immediate  practicality  of  the  informa¬ 
tion  imparted  and  of  the  proficiency  acquired  may  be  of 
some  consequence  and  may  merit  the  attention  which 
it  has  from  time  to  time  received  ;  but  there  is  a  more 
substantial  difference  in  the  mental  and  spiritual  bent 
which  is  favoured  by  the  one  and  the  other  discipline. 
This  divergent  trend  in  discipline  between  the  higher 
and  the  lower  learning  is  especially  noticeable  as  re¬ 
gards  the  primary  education  in  its  latest  development 
in  the  advanced  industrial  communities.  Here  the  in¬ 
struction  is  directed  chiefly  to  proficiency  or  dexterity, 
intellectual  and  manual,  in  the  apprehension  and  em¬ 
ployment  of  impersonal  facts,  in  their  causal  rather 
than  in  their  honorific  incidence.  It  is  true,  under  the 
traditions  of  the  earlier  days,  when  the  primary  educa¬ 
tion  was  also  predominantly  a  leisure-class  commodity, 

♦ 

a  free  use  is  still  made  of  emulation  as  a  spur  to  dili¬ 
gence  in  the  common  run  of  primary  schools  ;  but  even 
this  use  of  emulation  as  an  expedient  is  visibly  declin¬ 
ing  in  the  primary  grades  of  instruction  in  communities 
where  the  lower  education  is  not  under  the  guidance  of 
the  ecclesiastical  or  military  tradition.  All  this  holds 


The  Higher  Learning 


389 


true  in  a  peculiar  degree,  and  more  especially  on  the 
spiritual  side,  of  such  portions  of  the  educational  system 
as  have  been  immediately  affected  by  kindergarten 
methods  and  ideals. 

The  peculiarly  non-invidious  trend  of  the  kindergarten 
discipline,  and  the  similar  character  of  the  kindergarten 
influence  in  primary  education  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  kindergarten  proper,  should  be  taken  in  connection 
with  what  has  already  been  said  of  the  peculiar  spir¬ 
itual  attitude  of  leisure-class  womankind  under  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  of  the  modern  economic  situation.  The 
kindergarten  discipline  is  at  its  best  —  or  at  its  farthest 
remove  from  ancient  patriarchal  and  pedagogical  ideals 
—  in  the  advanced  industrial  communities,  where  there 
is  a  considerable  body  of  intelligent  and  idle  women, 
and  where  the  system  of  status  has  somewhat  abated  in 
rigour  under  the  disintegrating  influence  of  industrial 
life  and  in  the  absence  of  a  consistent  body  of  military 
and  ecclesiastical  traditions.  It  is  from  these  women 
in  easy  circumstances  that  it  gets  its  moral  support. 
The  aims  and  methods  of  the  kindergarten  commend 
themselves  with  especial  effect  to  this  class  of  women 
who  are  ill  at  ease  under  the  pecuniary  code  of  repu¬ 
table  life.  The  kindergarten,  and  whatever  the  kinder¬ 
garten  spirit  counts  for  in  modern  education,  therefore, 
is  to  be  set  down,  along  with  the  “  new-woman  move¬ 
ment, ’’  to  the  account  of  that  revulsion  against  futility 
and  invidious  comparison  which  the  leisure-class  life 
under  modern  circumstances  induces  in  the  women  most 
immediately  exposed  to  its  discipline.  In  this  way  it 
appears  that,  by  indirection,  the  institution  of  a  leisure 


390  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

class  here  again  favours  the  growth  of  a  non-invidious 
attitude,  which  may,  in  the  long  run,  prove  a  menace 
to  the  stability  of  the  institution  itself,  and  even  to  the 
institution  of  individual  ownership  on  which  it  rests. 

During  the  recent  past  some  tangible  changes  have 
taken  place  in  the  scope  of  college  and  university  teach¬ 
ing.  These  changes  have  in  the  main  consisted  in  a 
partial  displacement  of  the  humanities  —  those  branches 
of  learning  which  are  conceived  to  make  for  the  tradi¬ 
tional  “culture,”  character,  tastes,  and  ideals  — by 
those  more  matter-of-fact  branches  which  make  for 
civic  and  industrial  efficiency.  To  put  the  same  thing 
in  other  words,  those  branches  of  knowledge  which 
make  for  efficiency  (ultimately  productive  efficiency) 
have  gradually  been  gaining  ground  against  those 
branches  which  make  for  a  heightened  consumption 
or  a  lowered  industrial  efficiency,  and  for  a  type  of 
character  suited  to  the  regime  of  status.  In  this  adap¬ 
tation  of  the  scheme  of  instruction  the  higher  schools 
have  commonly  been  found  on  the  conservative  side ; 
each  step  which  they  have  taken  in  advance  has  been 
to  some  extent  of  the  nature  of  a  concession.  The 
sciences  have  been  intruded  into  the  scholar’s  disci¬ 
pline  from  without,  not  to  say  from  below.  It  is  no¬ 
ticeable  that  the  humanities  which  have  so  reluctantly 
yielded  ground  to  the  sciences  are  pretty  uniformly 
adapted  to  shape  the  character  of  the  student  in  accord¬ 
ance  with  a  traditional  self-centred  scheme  of  con¬ 
sumption  ;  a  scheme  of  contemplation  and  enjoyment 
of  the  true,  the  beautiful,  and  the  good,  according  to  a 


The  Higher  Learning  391 

conventional  standard  of  propriety  and  excellence,  the 
salient  feature  of  which  is  leisure  —  otium  cum  digni- 
tate .  In  language  veiled  by  their  own  habituation  to 
the  archaic,  decorous  point  of  view,  the  spokesmen  of 
the  humanities  have  insisted  upon  the  ideal  embodied 
in  the  maxim,  fruges  consumere  nati.  This  attitude 
should  occasion  no  surprise  in  the  case  of  schools  which 
are  shaped  by  and  rest  upon  a  leisure-class  culture. 

The  professed  grounds  on  which  it  has  been  sought, 
as  far  as  might  be,  to  maintain  the  received  standards 
and  methods  of  culture  intact  are  likewise  characteristic 
of  the  archaic  temperament  and  of  the  leisure-class  the¬ 
ory  of  life.  The  enjoyment  and  the  bent  derived  from 
habitual  contemplation  of  the  life,  ideals,  speculations, 
and  methods  of  consuming  time  and  goods,  in  vogue 
among  the  leisure  class  of  classical  antiquity,  for  in¬ 
stance,  is  felt  to  be  “higher,”  “nobler,”  “worthier,” 
than  what  results  in  these  respects  from  a  like  famili¬ 
arity  with  the  everyday  life  and  the  knowledge  and 
aspirations  of  commonplace  humanity  in  a  modern 
community.  That  learning  the  content  of  which  is  an 
unmitigated  knowledge  of  latter-day  men  and  things  is 
by  comparison  “lower,”  “base,”  “ignoble,” — one  even 
hears  the  epithet  “  sub-human  ”  applied  to  this  matter- 
of-fact  knowledge  of  mankind  and  of  everyday  life. 

This  contention  of  the  leisure-class  spokesmen  of  the. 
humanities  seems  to  be  substantially  sound.  In  point 
of  substantial  fact,  the  gratification  and  the  culture,  or 
the  spiritual  attitude  or  habit  of  mind,  resulting  from  an 
habitual  contemplation  of  the  anthropomorphism,  clan¬ 
nishness,  and  leisurely  self-complacency  of  the  gentle- 


392  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

man  of  an  early  day,  or  from  a  familiarity  with  the 
animistic  superstitions  and  the  exuberant  truculence  of 
the  Homeric  heroes,  for  instance,  is,  aesthetically  con¬ 
sidered,  more  legitimate  than  the  corresponding  results 
derived  from  a  matter-of-fact  knowledge  of  things  and 
a  contemplation  of  latter-day  civic  or  workmanlike  effi¬ 
ciency.  There  can  be  but  little  question  that  the  first- 
named  habits  have  the  advantage  in  respect  of  aesthetic 
or  honorific  value,  and  therefore  in  respect  of  the 
“worth  ”  which  is  made  the  basis  of  award  in  the  com¬ 
parison.  The  content  of  the  canons  of  taste,  and 
more  particularly  of  the  canons  of  honour,  is  in  the 
nature  of  things  a  resultant  of  the  past  life  and  circum¬ 
stances  of  the  race,  transmitted  to  the  later  generation 
by  inheritance  or  by  tradition  ;  and  the  fact  that  the 
protracted  dominance  of  a  predatory,  leisure-class 
scheme  of  life  has  profoundly  shaped  the  habit  of  mind 
and  the  point  of  view  of  the  race  in  the  past,  is  a  suffi¬ 
cient  basis  for  an  aesthetically  legitimate  dominance  of 
such  a  scheme  of  life  in  very  much  of  what  concerns 
matters  of  taste  in  the  present.  For  the  purpose  in 
hand,  canons  of  taste  are  race  habits,  acquired  through 
a  more  or  less  protracted  habituation  to  the  approval  or 
disapproval  of  the  kind  of  things  upon  which  a  favoura¬ 
ble  or  unfavourable  judgment  of  taste  is  passed.  Other 
•  things  being  equal,  the  longer  and  more  unbroken  the 
habituation,  the  more  legitimate  is  the  canon  of  taste  in 
question.  All  this  seems  to  be  even  truer  of  judg¬ 
ments  regarding  worth  or  honour  than  of  judgments  'of 
taste  generally. 

But  whatever  may  be  the  aesthetic  legitimacy  of  the 


393 


The  Higlier  Learning 

derogatory  judgment  passed  on  the  newer  learning  by 
the  spokesmen  of  the  humanities,  and  however  sub¬ 
stantial  may  be  the  merits  of  the  contention  that  the 
classic  lore  is  worthier  and  results  in  a  more  truly 
human  culture  and  character,  it  does  not  concern  the 
question  in  hand.  The  question  in  hand  is  as  to  how 
far  these  branches  of  learning,  and  the  point  of  view 
for  which  they  stand  in  the  educational  system,  help  or 
hinder  an  efficient  collective  life  under  modern  industrial 
circumstances,  —  how  far  they  further  a  more  facile 
adaptation  to  the  economic  situation  of  to-day.  The 
question  is  an  economic,  not  an  aesthetic  one  ;  and  the 
leisure-class  standards  of  learning  which  find  expression 
in  the  deprecatory  attitude  of  the  higher  schools  towards 
matter-of-fact  knowledge  are,  for  the  present  purpose, 
to  be  valued  from  this  point  of  view  only.  For  this 
purpose  the  use  of  such  epithets  as  “noble,”  “base,” 
“higher,”  “lower,”  etc.,  is  significant  only  as  showing 
the  animus  and  the  point  of  view  of  the  disputants  ; 
whether  they  contend  for  the  worthiness  of  the  new 
or  of  the  old.  All  these  epithets  are  honorific  or 
humilific  terms;  that  is  to  say,  they  are  terms  of 
invidious  comparison,  which  in  the  last  analysis  fall 
under  the  category  of  the  reputable  or  the  disrepu¬ 
table  ;  that  is,  they  belong  within  the  range  of  ideas 
that  characterises  the  scheme  of  life  of  the  regime  of 
status  ;  that  is,  they  are  in  substance  an  expression  of 
sportsmanship  —  of  the  predatory  and  animistic  habit 
of  mind  ;  that  is,  they  indicate  an  archaic  point  of  view 
and  theory  of  life,  which  may  fit  the  predatory  stage  of 
culture  and  of  economic  organisation  from  which  they 


394  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

have  sprung,  but  which  are,  from  the  point  of  view  of 
economic  efficiency  in  the  broader  sense,  disserviceable 
anachronisms. 

The  classics,  and  their  position  of  prerogative  in  the 
scheme  of  education  to  which  the  higher  seminaries  of 
learning  cling  with  such  a  fond  predilection,  serve  to 
shape  the  intellectual  attitude  and  lower  the  economic 
efficiency  of  the  new  learned  generation.  They  do  this 
not  only  by  holding  up  an  archaic  ideal  of  manhood,  but 
also  by  the  discrimination  which  they  inculcate  with 
respect  to  the  reputable  and  the  disreputable  in  know¬ 
ledge.  This  result  is  accomplished  in  two  ways:  ( i )  by 
inspiring  an  habitual  aversion  to  what  is  merely  useful, 
as  contrasted  with  what  is  merely  honorific  in  learning, 
and  so  shaping  the  tastes  of  the  novice  that  he  comes 
in  good  faith  to  find  gratification  of  his  tastes  solely,  or 
almost  solely,  in  such  exercise  of  the  intellect  as  nor¬ 
mally  results  in  no  industrial  or  social  gain ;  and  (2)  by 
consuming  the  learner’s  time  and  effort  in  acquiring 
knowledge  which  is  of  no  use,  except  in  so  far  as  this 
learning  has  by  convention  become  incorporated  into 
the  sum  of  learning  required  of  the  scholar,  and  has 
thereby  affected  the  terminology  and  diction  employed 
in  the  useful  branches  of  knowledge.  Except  for  this 
terminological  difficulty  —  which  is  itself  a  consequence 
of  the  vogue  of  the  classics  in  the  past  —  a  knowledge 
of  the  ancient  languages,  for  instance,  would  have  no 
practical  bearing  for  any  scientist  or  any  scholar  not 
engaged  on  work  primarily  of  a  linguistic  character. 
Of  course  all  this  has  nothing  to  say  as  to  the  cultural 
value  of  the  classics,  nor  is  there  any  intention  to  dis- 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SOCIOLOGY 


AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  PHENOMENA  OF  ASSOCIATION  AND  OF 

SOCIAL  ORGANIZATION. 


By  FRANKLIN  HENRY  GIDDINGS,  M.A., 

Prof  essor  of  Sociology  in  Columbia  University,  in  the  City  of  New  York- 

(COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS.) 

8vo.  Cloth.  $3.00,  net. 


“  The  book  is  especially  valuable  because  of  the  clearness  and  fulness  with 
which  it  discusses  the  psychical  elements  in  social  evolution. 

“  Professor  Giddings  has  done  good  service  by  his  clear  exposition  of  the 
present  stage  of  sociology,  and  he  has  made  a  distinct  and  valuable  contribution 
to  the  subject.  The  book  is  also  timely,  and  will  doubtless  have  wide  reading 
and  command  the  attention  of  all  students  of  the  subject,  not  only  because  of 
Professor  Giddings’  acknowledged  standing  as  a  sociologist,  but  because  of  its 
intrinsic  value.  The  style  is  particularly  lucid,  and  the  tone  of  the  book  is  judi¬ 
cial  throughout.”  —  The  Bookman. 

“  This  is  a  book  which  has  long  been  awaited  with  eager  expectation  by 
students  of  sociology.  We  have  a  valuable  treatise  which  will,  we  believe,  for 
many  years  to  come  be  the  text-book  on  this  subject. 

“  Professor  Giddings’  work  has  in  a  high  degree  that  most  valuable  character¬ 
istic  of  a  contribution  to  human  thought,  suggestiveness.  His  discussion  of  the 
evolution  of  culture  and  tradition  in  his  chapter  on  ‘  Demogenic  Association  ’ 
is  especially  rich  in  suggestion. 

“  Professor  Giddings’  book  is  highly  stimulating.  He  is  a  vigorous  thinker 
and  a  strong  writer,  and  he  has  a  broad  knowledge  of  his  subject  and  its  various 
affiliations  which  is  as  refreshing  as  it  is  unusual  in  this  day  of  scientific  special¬ 
ists  and  non-scientific  sociologists. 

“  The  book  is  well  indexed  and  is  accompanied  by  a  valuable  classified 
bibliography,  —  valuable,  but  by  no  means  exhaustive.”  —  The  New  Unity. 

“  Is  of  great  interest.  Students  of  the  comparatively  new  science  of  soci¬ 
ology  will  give  a  hearty  welcome  to  Professor  Giddings’  book.”  —  Boston  Daily 
Advertiser. 

“  His  volume  is  a  brilliant,  fascinating,  and  important  contribution  to  a  sub¬ 
ject  which  is  engaging  the  sustained  labors  of  our  foremost  scholars,  and  the 
attention  and  interest  of  our  publicists.”  —  The  Philadelphia  Evening  Bulletin. 

“  The  work  is  on  an  entirely  new  basis.  There  is  nothing  like  it  in  litera¬ 
ture.  A  glance  at  the  table  of  contents  will  convince  any  one  that  it  is  a  model 
of  method.  We  feel  convinced  that  as  soon  as  it  becomes  known  it  will  be 
accepted  as  an  authority;  and  its  value,  coming  in  all  its  completeness  at  this 
early  stage  of  the  study  of  this  science,  cannot  be  exaggerated.”  —  Minneapolis 
Tribune. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY, 

66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK. 


THE  THEORY  OF  SOCIALIZATION. 


A  Syllabus  of  the  Principles  of  Sociology. 

FOR  THE  USE  OF  COLLEGE  AND  UNIVERSITY  CLASSES. 

By  FRANKLIN  HENRY  GIDDINGS, 

Professor  of  Sociology  in  Columbia  University. 


With  References  to  “The  Principles  of  Sociology”  by 

the  same  Author. 


Pamphlet  Form.  8vo.  60  cents,  net. 


“  The  Theory  of  Socialization  ”  is  intended  for  the  use  of  college  and 
university  classes.  This  book  and  “  The  Principles  of  Sociology  ” 
together  constitute  a  text-book  for  the  advanced  student  of  the  subject. 
“  The  Theory  of  Socialization  ”  presents  the  chief  theoretical  principles 
of  sociology  in  a  compact  form  and  consecutive  order,  and  illustrates 
many  of  them  with  new  examples.  The  consciousness  of  kind  is  fully 
analyzed,  and  the  modes  of  resemblance  which  underlie  the  conscious¬ 
ness  of  kind  are  described  in  detail.  The  reaction  of  the  consciousness 
of  kind  upon  the  individualistic  motives  is  explained,  and  it  is  shown 
that  it  is  through  the  modification  of  individualistic  motives  by  the 
consciousness  of  kind  that  the  true  social  forces  arise.  The  process  by 
which  these  social  forces  are  developed  into  an  organized  social  control 
is  fully  treated,  and  a  practical  bearing  is  given  to  the  whole  philosophy 
of  the  subject  by  an  examination  of  its  relation  to  the  democratic  pro¬ 
gramme  of  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY, 

66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK. 


397 


The  Higher  Learning 

and  effort,  and  hence  of  the  pecuniary  strength  neces¬ 
sary  in  order  to  afford  this  waste,  that  has  secured  to 
the  classics  their  position  of  prerogative  in  the  scheme 
of  the  higher  learning,  and  has  led  to  their  being  es¬ 
teemed  the  most  honorific  of  all  learning.  They  serve 
the  decorative  ends  of  leisure-class  learning  better  than 
any  other  body  of  knowledge,  and  hence  they  are  an 
effective  means  of  reputability. 

In  this  respect  the  classics  have  until  lately  had 
scarcely  a  rival.  They  still  have  no  dangerous  rival 
on  the  continent  of  Europe,  but  lately,  since  college 
athletics  have  won  their  way  into  a  recognised  standing 
as  an  accredited  field  of  scholarly  accomplishment,  this 
latter  branch  of  learning  —  if  athletics  may  be  freely 
classed  as  learning  —  has  become  a  rival  of  the  classics 
for  the  primacy  in  leisure-class  education  in  American 
and  English  schools.  Athletics  have  an  obvious  advan¬ 
tage  over  the  classics  for  the  purpose  of  leisure-class 
learning,  since  success  as  an  athlete  presumes,  not 
only  a  waste  of  time,  but  also  a  waste  of  money,  as  well 
as  the  possession  of  certain  highly  unindustrial  archaic 
traits  of  character  and  temperament.  In  the  German 
universities  the  place  of  athletics  and  Greek-letter  fra¬ 
ternities,  as  a  leisure-class  scholarly  occupation,  has  in 
some  measure  been  supplied  by  a  skilled  and  graded 
inebriety  and  a  perfunctory  duelling. 

The  leisure  class  and  its  standards  of  virtue  —  archa¬ 
ism  and  waste  —  can  scarcely  have  been  concerned  in 
the  introduction  of  the  classics  into  the  scheme  of  the 
higher  learning;  but  the  tenacious  retention  of  the 
classics  by  the  higher  schools,  and  the  high  degree  of 


39 8  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

reputability  which  still  attaches  to  them,  are  no  doubt 
due  to  their  conforming  so  closely  to  the  requirements 
of  archaism  and  waste. 

“  Classic  ”  always  carries  this  connotation  of  wasteful 
and  archaic,  whether  it  is  used  to  denote  the  dead  lan¬ 
guages  or  the  obsolete  or  obsolescent  forms  of  thought 
and  diction  in  the  living  language,  or  to  denote  other 
items  of  scholarly  activity  or  apparatus  to  which  it  is 
applied  with  less  aptness.  So  the  archaic  idiom  of  the 
English  language  is  spoken  of  as  “classic”  English. 
Its  use  is  imperative  in  all  speaking  and  writing  upon 
serious  topics,  and  a  facile  use  of  it  lends  dignity  to 
even  the  most  commonplace  and  trivial  string  of  talk. 
The  newest  form  of  English  diction  is  of  course  never 
written ;  the  sense  of  that  leisure-class  propriety  which 
requires  archaism  in  speech  is  present  even  in  the  most 
illiterate  or  sensational  writers  in  sufficient  force  to 
prevent  such  a  lapse.  On  the  other  hand,  the  highest 
and  most  conventionalised  style  of  archaic  diction  is 
—  quite  characteristically  —  properly  employed  only  in 
communications  between  an  anthropomorphic  divinity 
and  his  subjects.  Midway  between  these  extremes  lies 
the  everyday  speech  of  leisure-class  conversation  and 
literature. 

Elegant  diction,  whether  in  writing  or  speaking,  is  an 
effective  means  of  reputability.  It  is  of  moment  to 
know  with  some  precision  what  is  the  degree  of  archa¬ 
ism  conventionally  required  in  speaking  on  any  given 
topic.  Usage  differs  appreciably  from  the  pulpit  to  the 
market-place;  the  latter,  as  might  be  expected,  admits 
the  use  of  relatively  new  and  effective  words  and  turns 


399 


The  Higher  Learning 

of  expression,  even  by  fastidious  persons.  A  discrimi¬ 
nate  avoidance  of  neologisms  is  honorific,  not  only  be¬ 
cause  it  argues  that  time  has  been  wasted  in  acquiring 
the  obsolescent  habit  of  speech,  but  also  as  showing 
that  the  speaker  has  from  infancy  habitually  associated 
with  persons  who  have  been  familiar  with  the  obsoles¬ 
cent  idiom.  It  thereby  goes  to  show  his  leisure-class 
antecedents.  Great  purity  of  speech  is  prima  facie  evi¬ 
dence  of  several  successive  lives  spent  in  other  than 
vulgarly  useful  occupations;  although  its  evidence  is  by 
no  means  entirely  conclusive  to  this  point. 

As  felicitous  an  instance  of  futile  classicism  as  can 
well  be  found,  outside  of  the  Far  East,  is  the  conven¬ 
tional  spelling  of  the  English  language.  A  breach  of 
the  proprieties  in  spelling  is  extremely  annoying  and 
will  discredit  any  writer  in  the  eyes  of  all  persons  who 
are  possessed  of  a  developed  sense  of  the  true  and 
beautiful.  English  orthography  satisfies  all  the  re¬ 
quirements  of  the  canons  of  reputability  under  the  law 
of  conspicuous  waste.  It  is  archaic,  cumbrous,  and 
ineffective;  its  acquisition  consumes  much  time  and 
effort ;  failure  to  acquire  it  is  easy  of  detection.  There¬ 
fore  it  is  the  first  and  readiest  test  of  reputability  in 
learning,  and  conformity  to  its  ritual  is  indispensable 
to  a  blameless  scholastic  life. 

On  this  head  of  purity  of  speech,  as  at  other  points 
where  a  conventional  usage  rests  on  the  canons  of 
archaism  and  waste,  the  spokesmen  for  the  usage  in¬ 
stinctively  take  an  apologetic  attitude.  It  is  contended, 
in  substance,  that  a  punctilious  use  of  ancient  and 
accredited  locutions  will  serve  to  convey  thought  more 


400  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

adequately  and  more  precisely  than  would  the  straight¬ 
forward  use  of  the  latest  form  of  spoken  English ; 
whereas  it  is  notorious  that  the  ideas  of  to-day  are 
effectively  expressed  in  the  slang  of  to-day.  Classic 
speech  has  the  honorific  virtue  of  dignity ;  it  com¬ 
mands  attention  and  respect  as  being  the  accredited 
method  of  communication  under  the  leisure-class  scheme 
of  life,  because  it  carries  a  pointed  suggestion  of  the 
industrial  exemption  of  the  speaker.  The  advantage  of 
the  accredited  locutions  lies  in  their  reputability  ;  they 
are  reputable  because  they  are  cumbrous  and  out  of 
date,  and  therefore  argue  waste  of  time  and  exemption 
from  the  use  and  the  need  of  direct  and  forcible  speech. 


395 


The  Higher  Learning 

parage  the  discipline  of  the  classics  or  the  bent  which 
their  study  gives  to  the  student.  That  bent  seems  to 
be  of  an  economically  disserviceable  kind,  but  this  fact 
—  somewhat  notorious  indeed  —  need  disturb  no  one 
who  has  the  good  fortune  to  find  comfort  and  strength 
in  the  classical  lore.  The  fact  that  classical  learning 
acts  to  derange  the  learner’s  workmanlike  aptitudes 
should  fall  lightly  upon  the  apprehension  of  those  who 
hold  workmanship  of  small  account  in  comparison  with 
the  cultivation  of  decorous  ideals  : 

lam  fides  et  pax  et  honos  pudorque 
Priscus  et  neglecta  redire  virtus 
Audet. 

Owing  to  the  circumstance  that  this  knowledge  has 
become  part  of  the  elementary  requirements  in  our 
system  of  education,  the  ability  to  use  and  to  under¬ 
stand  certain  of  the  dead  languages  of  southern  Europe 
is  not  only  gratifying  to  the  person  who  finds  occasion  to 
parade  his  accomplishments  in  this  respect,  but  the  evi¬ 
dence  of  such  knowledge  serves  at  the  same  time  to  recom¬ 
mend  any  savant  to  his  audience,  both  lay  and  learned. 
It  is  currently  expected  that  a  certain  number  of  years 
shall  have  been  spent  in  acquiring  this  substantially  use¬ 
less  information,  and  its  absence  creates  a  presumption 
of  hasty  and  precarious  learning,  as  well  as  of  a  vulgar 
practicality  that  is  equally  obnoxious  to  the  conventional 
standards  of  sound  scholarship  and  intellectual  force. 

The  case  is  analogous  to  what  happens  in  the  purchase 
of  any  article  of  consumption  by  a  purchaser  who  is  not 
an  expert  judge  of  materials  or  of  workmanship.  He 
makes  his  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  article  chiefly  on 

P 


396  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 

the  ground  of  the  apparent  expensiveness  of  the  finish 
of  those  decorative  parts  and  features  which  have  no 
immediate  relation  to  the  intrinsic  usefulness  of  the 
article ;  the  presumption  being  that  some  sort  of  ill- 
defined  proportion  subsists  between  the  substantial 
value  of  the  article  and  the  expense  of  adornment 
added  in  order  to  sell  it.  The  presumption  that  there 
can  ordinarily  be  no  sound  scholarship  where  a  know¬ 
ledge  of  the  classics  and  humanities  is  wanting  leads  to 
a  conspicuous  waste  of  time  and  labour  on  the  part  of 
the  general  body  of  students  in  acquiring  such  know¬ 
ledge.  The  conventional  insistence  on  a  modicum  of 
conspicuous  waste  as  an  incident  of  all  reputable  schol¬ 
arship  has  affected  our  canons  of  taste  and  of  service¬ 
ability  in  matters  of  scholarship  in  much  the  same  way 
as  the  same  principle  has  influenced  our  judgment  of 
the  serviceability  of  manufactured  goods. 

It  is  true,  since  conspicuous  consumption  has  gained 
more  and  more  on  conspicuous  leisure  as  a  means  of 
repute,  the  acquisition  of  the  dead  languages  is  no 
longer  so  imperative  a  requirement  as  it  once  was,  and 
its  talismanic  virtue  as  a  voucher  of  scholarship  has  suf¬ 
fered  a  concomitant  impairment.  But  while  this  is 
true,  it  is  also  true  that  the  classics  have  ,  scarcely  lost 
in  absolute  value  as  a  voucher  of  scholastic  respecta¬ 
bility,  since  for  this  purpose  it  is  only  necessary  that 
the  scholar  should  be  able  to  put  in  evidence  some 
learning  which  is  conventionally  recognised  as  evidence 
of  wasted  time ;  and  the  classics  lend  themselves  with 
great  facility  to  this  use.  Indeed,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  it  is  their  utility  as  evidence  of  wasted  time 


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